Added Member
by movielover01
Summary: What if Brian hadn't been the only one to meet Maurice that night? What if Brian had an older sister? A retelling of the movie if Chris had gone in the adventure as well. A MauricexOC story. Will be much better from my previous story. I don't own Little Monsters or Maurice and Brian.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters plot, dialogue, or characters. The only thing I own is Chris.**

**A/N- I know I already have a story for this but this idea popped into my head and I just had to make it into a story. I just love the movie so much that I really want to do another story. My other story followed the plot line very closely and this is the movie just in a different light. Like a parallel universe if you will. I will try to make this a lot better than my other story that I'm not completely happy with. R&R!**

A two story house in the middle of a street sat quiet in the darkness of the night. A light shone in an upstairs window and silhouettes of two adults stood waving arms and shaking heads. In the attic two beds on opposite sides of the room were bathed in the bright light of the moon. A rig went off disturbing the once silent room. A bell alarm went off as well as a traffic fence light flashing bright yellow light into the room and out the window.

A dark haired brown eyed boy of 11 sat up in bed fully awake. He shut off the alarm sending the room into silent darkness once again. He pulled out a hidden pair of wool socks and slips them on, suiting up for work. He slides across the hardwood floor making no sound as he climbs down the stairs. Little did he know the alarm had woken not only him but a witness to his plan.

Christine Stephenson sat up in bed and stared after her brother Brian. Wiping the crust out of her eyes Chris climbed out of her bed and tenderly walked down the hardwood stairs after Brian. Knowing brian Chris decided that it would be smart to go after him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Resting at the base of the attic stairs plotting out her execution she viewed the hall with a challenging air. Her eyes came to rest at her parent's door which was open just a crack letting a small sliver of light to escape into the hall. The sound of the voices raising, lowering, and becoming sharp could be heard. No doubt they were arguing…again. Christine's face darkened for a split second before her face returned to the challenge in front of her.

Christine lightly stepped across the hall to the stairwell and tenderly walked down the steps with a certain precise grace; stepping across the minefield of possible creaks from the old wood floor. Christine stopped to rest at the bottom of the stairwell melting into the shadows, surveying the room before making her next move. Out of the corner of her eye Chris just barely catches a quick subtle movement heading up the stairs. Christine whipped her head around and eyed the stairs cautiously. When her search came up empty she returned her attention to the front room, a light shudder racking her shoulders. The sound of the TV whirring to life lured her out of the shadows. The wooden floor silenced her movement as she creeped to the couch. The TV's light casted shadows of the furniture onto the walls giving the room a slight creepy feel.

The living room was a painting scene with a ceiling high ladder, tubs of paint, and scattered paint brushes and rollers. The smell of wet paint hung in the air. Christine stopped choking down a cough and hid beneath the arm of the couch. Brian sat on the edge of the couch eating a sandwich his face shoved and inch in front of the television. The volume was deafly low, almost inaudible from her current position, but she could see that he was watching a channel that their parents had clearly prohibited him from watching. She decided to make her move crawling on her belly behind the couch as a lion does with its prey. She kneeled and quickly jumped up and clamped her hands over his mouth.

Brian froze filled with dread at the face that was behind him. He slowly turned and met Christine's gaze. She put a finger to her lips; he nodded in confirmation. Christine stood up and sat beside Brian. She watched the screen and rolled her eyes after just 5 minutes. How Brian found a show that consisted of just a woman sitting on a couch in a bikini good TV Chris would never understand. A loud scream pierced the silence and the two kids on the couch flinched. The pair bolted off the couch and ran for the stairwell. Holly and Glen came running out of their room to go calm down their youngest child; Brian, and Chris waited underneath the stairs for them to pass.

The two ran up the stairs unafraid of making noise since there were no longer ears to hear them and ran for the security of their bedroom. Inside their shared bedroom Brian flopped down on his bed relieved that they hadn't got caught in the act. Christine walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Man that was close! I'm getting really tired of Eric screaming all the time ruining my plans."

"He's having trouble sleeping Brian. Besides you shouldn't have been up in the first place." Chris defended Eric not liking Brian's rude remark when Brian was the one who wasn't following rules.

Brian just rolls his eyes and stares at the ceiling.

"You know that if you get caught you're going to get in some major trouble."

"Why do you care Chris? It's not like you're the one who's gonna get punished."

"I don't want you to get in trouble that's why. Mom and dad are already stressed as it is, you want to go and make their temperament worse? It's just going to make your punishment worse."

"Forget it Chris."

The two sat in silence ending the conversation, wanting to stop the nagging back and forth banter that would undoubtedly arise if it continued.

"Why should I care? They dragged us here from home, why should I be trying to make them happy? I hate it here!"

Chris sighed. She had a feeling that Brian was unhappy here, she felt the same way.

"Well what is throwing a fit and disobeying going to do? The're not going to move us back just because you want to Brian. But, things will get better you'll see."

Brian just shook his head.

"Have you made any friends yet?"

"No."

"…Me neither."

"What did you think of Ronnie Coleman?" She asked with a mischievous smile

Brian snorted with a grimace on his face "He's a total toad."

Christine threw her head back and laughed heartedly "I had a feeling you wouldn't like him."

They ended their conversation with goodnights to each other and Christine gave Brian a quick kiss on the forehead which he rubbed off in mock disgust. She smiled at her younger brother and climbed back into her bed on the far side of the room and went to sleep.

Christine came down the next morning to her parents and other little brother Eric seated at the table.

"Morning mom, morning dad," she walked over to Eric giving him a kiss on the head "Morning Eric."

They all greeted her and Christine sat down at the table getting comfortable. Christine reached over and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She ate in silence just listening to the conversations going around the kitchen.

"Eric did you take your vitamins?" Holly asked wandering around the kitchen making the lunches for the kids.

"Yep."

"Okay then. No trading for Twinkies today."

"Oh come on mom, I don't do that."

Holly just murmured her response and finished making the lunches. Holly reached into the cabinet and pulled out vitamin bottle and shook out a pill. Holly walked over and placed it on the napkin near Christine. Christine sighed and took the vitamin.

"I'm sorry that you have to share a room with Brian Chris. It's only for a few weeks until we get everything settled then we'll move you an Eric around. I really wanted the boys to share a room and you to get your own but Brian would rather share a room for 3 weeks with you than with Eric."

"That's just because he knows that if he bunks with Eric he'll have to see Todd more often." Holly gave her a look of scolding before going back to something else.

"Good morning mom." Brian greeted as he came down the stairs plopping down in his chair.

"Hi honey." Holly automatically responded.

Brian smiled at Christine and she half-heartedly smiled back. Mornings and Christine didn't exactly see eye to eye. She was and had never been much of a morning person. As she entered teen hood it became even worse. Brian and Eric knew this very well.

"I hope that whatever you watched last night was worth your allowance and two weeks of TV." Glen said.

"Huh?"

"Huh."

"We found the sandwich Brian." Holly bluntly said clearing it up for him.

Eric winced knowing that the shit has just hit the fan. Brian glances over at Christine briefly eyes asking silently for some kind of help. Chris stares back at him with blank eyes.

"What sandwich?" Brian replies looking back at his parents as innocent as can be.

Holly spins around amazed that he would try and lie his way out of it.

"Brian Arthur Stephenson, you are the only one in this family who eats peanut butter and onion sandwiches." Holly rolls her eyes at 'peanut butter and onion sandwiches' then walks over to the sink.

"You think every time you get caught you can just lie your way out of it?" Glen said standing up with his cup of coffee.

Brian, defeated, lays his head on his propped up hand and looks at the ground. Pouting if anything that he got caught.

"Damn it!" Holly shouts frustrated as the sink refuses to run any water through.

Glen places a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort before saying "The plumbers coming next week."

"Great," Holly says voice heavy sarcasm and annoyance "I can leave him all these dishes."

"Just keep telling yourself: 'it's our dream house.'"

"It's our dream house, it's our dream house, it's our dream house." The pipes fires off scaring Holly but she quickly returns to pushing hard on the handle of the sink.

Brian grabs all three lunch bags and places them on the table. Christine takes hers and Brian takes his. Glen, at the same time, opens the cupboard and reaches up for something but stops and flinches as a carton of strawberry ice cream comes raining down on him. The contents now melted from the night in room temperature splatters over Glen's torso; staining his work shirt with strawberry goop.

Both Christine and Brian snort; Eric winces. Glen turns around suspenseful showing the full extent of the Strawberry goop stain.

Glen gives Brian the evil eye. "You're dead Mister."

Brian looks incredulously at the carton of ice cream and the shirt. "Hey I didn't do anything!"

"Like the sandwich." Holly asked not buying it. She hands a kitchen sponge to Glen. Glen, disgusted, attempts to wipe the goop off his shirt.

"Okay I admit I did have a sandwich but I did not have any ice cream! Why do you always blame everything on me?"

Eric eyes the ceiling with another wince.

"He's telling the truth. I heard him get out of bed and I went down with him. He only had the sandwich." Christine softly defended her words aimed into the bowl of cereal she was sitting over.

"Then who got some ice cream?" Holly questioned looking around the table.

"I did," everyone eyed Christine "I thought I put it back in the freezer. Guess I didn't. Sorry dad."

She looked up at their parents who were suspiciously eyeing her. Glen seemed reluctant as he nodded.

"Okay. No TV for two weeks for you either then." Christine nodded accepting the punishment easily. She barely watched the TV anyway.

"As for you Brian, you are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. Why don't you start acting it?"

Glen walked towards Brian with brooding authority. Brian backs up into the wall and watches as Glen walks past him.

"Why don't you start acting it dad?" Brian storms out of the kitchen leaving Christine and Eric in the kitchen.

Chris grabs her satchel and lunch sack. "I'll meet you and Todd on the bus Eric." She walks out the front door leaving Eric for a head start. Walking down the lawn with drowsy steps, just missing Brian's bike spiraled out in the front of the drive way, Christine softly hums. Her mind is blank as she walks down to the bus stop past the old cemetery.

The scent of the freshly cut grass and wide variety of flowers fill her nose and a content smile pulls at her lips. Even when she was feeling lousy she could find a moment that brought her comfort and relax enough to enjoy it. The boy's quickly caught up with her and they got on the bus together. Christine gently pushed her way through the isle of the bus, greeting Kirsten with the boys who looked up from her science textbook smiled and waved back, and sat in the seat in front of Eric and Todd.

Christine gazed out the window her eyes already glazing over when Brian rushed onto the bus; catching her attention. Brian spotting the group ran to Christine's seat and crashed down. The driver scolded him but he didn't even acknowledge it.

"Brian, why aren't you riding your bike?" Eric asked curious after what had just happened back at home.

"What bike? Dad ran over it because you left it in the driveway." Christine's ears perked up and she turned around in her seat to watch the scene.

"No way your bike. No way." Eric was practically radiating innocence, but Christine knew that Brian had put his bike away the day before. So even though she couldn't think of a reason that Eric would take Brian's bike out and leave it in the drive way she had to assume it was him. After all, it was the only logical explanation.

"Look I put it away. Mom and dad sure wouldn't touch it. Chris has her own bike and mine is too small for her to ride. So, that only leaves you." Brian thumps Eric on the head showing Eric that he's serious and annoyed. Todd watches from the sidelines with Christine both soaking in the argument like sponges.

"I didn't touch your bike. I can hardly reach the pedals." Eric said defending himself from Brian's accusation.

Brian becomes fed up. Not receiving the confession that he wanted he becomes angrier and even more convinced that Eric is lying.

"Okay that's it! You lie to me you starve."

Brian throws Eric's sack lunch out the open bus window and Eric looks out the window where his lunch just flew out of with shock and anger.

"My lunch! You jerk, I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah and what about that ice cream that Chris took the blame for. You snuck some ice cream last night too didn't you?"

"Forget it. Don't blame it on me."

"The monster." Todd says.

"That's it. That's what it was doing." Eric told Brian and Chris.

"There are no monsters." Brian states with annoyance that Eric is still convinced the monster did it.

"Who's Eric?" The whole bus goes quiet as Ronnie Coleman steps onto the bus. The bus oohs ominously as Eric's name is called out.

"Who's the Eric that threw his lunch at me?" The oohs become even louder. Kids around the four point to Eric and Ronnie approaches them.

"You Eric?" Eric with a look of terror just nods. Ronnie holds up the bologna slice, still covered in mustard, from Eric's sandwich. "You want this back?" Eric just nods again in fright and Ronnie smiles.

Christine, who up until this point had been watching silently from the sidelines, stands up in the seat with cold calm authority.

"Cool it Ronnie it was an accident." Ronnie seems to back off somewhat and the bus passengers ooh softly. Brian follows his sister's lead.

"Yeah why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"Like bigfoot?" Todd adds.

Ronnie leans in getting as close to Todd as the seat allows. He sneers.

"Maybe I will."

The bus comes to a sudden halt and Ronnie flies backward into the isle the bologna slice landing on his jacket, smearing mustard all over the surface. His face is filled with an angry grimace.

"Your dead meat Stephenson!" Ronnie exclaims as he picks up his bag and with as much dignity that he could muster and shoved his way off the bus. High fives go around the group and Christine quietly smiles to herself.

Christine wandered through school that day her attentions on her surroundings almost nonexistent. She walked almost like a ghost; didn't belong but was stuck there. That's how Christine spent most of her school days letting her festering exhaustion manifest itself in her behavior during school. Most of the time she didn't speak a word to anyone (teachers and students alike) and because of this she wasn't making many new friends. Basically she was the wall flower of the school. She didn't mind for the most part. There wasn't someone she saw during school hours that appealed to her as a friend.

Even if she didn't want to make friends she still had that little want deep inside to have a friend anyway. Many times during the school day her mind would wander to her friends who were back at her old home. Many times she wished she could at least call them and hear their voices. In an unfortunate twist however, most of her friends didn't have home phones because they had just recently moved in back home. So other than her family here she was really quite a loner.

Despite her loneliness Christine would never tell her folks of how she down she was. She had been watching their arguments go from almost nonexistent to an almost everyday occurrence in the days of the move. Christine had a nagging feeling of what this arguing was leading up to but whenever she took serious thought to the possibility she shoved it into the back of her mind. That was the last thing she wanted to think about.

School for her was basically just walking to class; listening to a lecture in the class she was in, doing her homework in class, and then drawing or reading to occupy herself for the rest of the class period. Chris was a fairly good student always receiving A's and B's. If you wanted to rank her in social status at the school she was the smart quiet girl. School ended almost as soon as it started. When the bell rang she calmly stood up and walked through the crowds of kids out of the building and onto the bus. Like she had on the morning bus ride she was mostly quiet. She listened to Brian describe the fight he and Ronnie Coleman got into at school that day and how he got punished for the fight Ronnie started.

Christine listened quietly every now and again switching her gaze from her unfinished homework to Brian and when he finished she, also having finished all her homework, stuffed her books and papers in her satchel and stared at him with deep thought.

"That sucks. There's always that one kid who acts like a polite angel and never gets blamed for whatever he or she started. I see it all the time," Christine bluntly stated "But don't you worry, we'll find some way to get him back for it." Brian wanting it to be a serious promise asked to shake hands on it. Christine agreed even though she had no idea how she was going to fulfill this promise but Christine had learned that almost always things worked out. Even when things seemed bleak if you kept at it and didn't panic things would work out.

Brian and Christine walked side by side home. If one to walk from the opposite direction it would look like a pair of twins were walking towards you. Most of the time they were mistaken as twins because of how startlingly alike their looks were. Same: nose, freckles, and face shape. Except that Christine was of course more feminine. Her eyes were jade instead of brown and her long thick curly hair was honey blonde chocolate brown mix. Plus being 2 years older she was taller than Brian, she was 5 foot 7 if you wanted to be exact.

Brian hung back with his sister. Brian didn't enjoy hanging around most of his family members for more than he had too, Christine was the exception. He had noticed Christine be uncharacteristically quiet the past few days. Yeah sure, Christine was prone to being withdrawn once in a while but never all the time. Especially around him but he knew the reason why she was showing uncharacteristic silence. Brian wished she wasn't though he often faked it but he enjoyed being in the presence of his older sister. He would never outwardly admit this. But he was content to just walk side by side with his sister, even if no words were exchanged.

Todd and Eric came running up from behind to the two older kids a look of determination written all over their faces. Christine knew that look from Eric he was trying to enact a plan.

Eric looked up at Brian who was walking on the cemetery wall. "If you say there's no monster then switch room with me."

**Chris's POV-**

"What?" Brian stopped giving Eric a dumbfounded look before walking on, me following suit.

"Switch rooms with me." Eric said again. Obviously Eric was very determined to convince Brian to agree to this.

"Yeah you sleep in Eric's room and he sleeps in your room." Todd simplified it out for him. I guess he thought Brian literally meant 'what do you mean by that?'

"No way Eric. You just want me and Chris's room. Oh and where is Chris supposed to sleep then huh? I doubt she wants to spend the weekend trying to sleep listening to the two of you."

I just smirked to myself. Brian could be quite rude when he wanted to be. To be honest he was right in that regard. It was my day off and on the weekends I liked to sleep in. To be honest I don't think I'd get a good night of leisurely sleep with the two of them having a sleep over in there. But Brian was one to talk with his fancy rigs that flashed lights and rang in the middle of the night.

"She can bunk with you. Yeah, you'll stand a better chance with another person with you." Eric said nodding approvingly.

Brian rolled his eyes and I just chuckled to myself highly humored by the current conversation.

"If you do it I'll do it Bri." He looked at me and I could see he was regarding the idea with more consideration now that he knew I was willing to go through with the annoying unusual torture along with him.

"I want you and Chris to prove me wrong I dare ya to switch rooms."

"Double dare." Todd followed equally eager as Eric to see this go down.

Brian was much less enthusiastic with the dare. "Relax toad."

"I double dare you to switch rooms."

"Will you guys take a hike?" Brian was putting his foot down not faltering for a second.

Or at least he wasn't until Eric said "I'll pay you."

Brian couldn't resist that. It was just impossible for Brian to pass up. I could practically hear his thoughts'This is too easy' was probably what he was thinking. I could even see him smirking as he rolled the idea of him outwitting Eric out of cash in his mind.

The only money Eric had was his saved Birthday money that he had saved over the last 3 years. Eric had to be pretty serious about this to spend any of his precious savings. This threw me off a bit. On my theory I mean. Eric seemed really convinced there was a monster. Even a little too convinced even as monster fears go. It made me a little put off by the idea of staying in his room. I rolled my eyes annoyed at myself. I was so amazed at how easily I could get my mind sucked into an idea sometimes. I was a little upset at Brian too, he couldn't stay one night in Eric's room when he was afraid? That's kind of mean.

I was throwing the necessities I needed to see myself through an overnight stay into a blue weaved basket. Brian was doing the same behind me. Brian stood up and walked to the door waiting for me.

"Come on Chris!"

"I'm coming." I mumbled really not up to a sleep over even in another room. I hadn't been sleeping well over the past days of the move. Actually I haven't got much sleep at all just 4 hours a night at most. I thought about telling my parents but my pride and stubborn resilient nature wouldn't allow me to cave in. I still tried to convince myself that I was going through a faze or my stress was keeping me up. Brian seemed to have the slightest inkling that I haven't sleeping well but he hadn't brought it up and I was happy with that.

I stumbled down to Eric's room and stopped and leaned against the doorway while Brian went inside.

"Brian, you got to stay the whole night and sleep with your legs sticking out of the covers."

"And you got to have the door closed." I nearly laughed at how serious Todd was taking this. Brian seemed to think so to.

"Oh God, please stop. I can't take it your frightening me." Brian said sarcasm to the max. Obviously he had no shame in voicing that he thought this whole things was ridiculous. I didn't care to say anything I wasn't in the mood to try to mock anyone tonight.

"Eric Todd it's time for bed." I walked into the room walking past Eric and Todd who walked the opposite way to leave.

"Good Night dad."

"Good night Mrs. Stephenson."

"Good Night." Dad watched them up until the stairs then turned his attention back to us.

"Hey dad." We both said in unison.

"Hey guys."

He sat beside us on the bed the bed sinking underneath the added weight.

"I just want to say that I think it's really nice of you two to switch rooms with Eris like this. I'm proud of you two."

Brian smiled and thanked him I just smiled. My brain wasn't in the mood to say much I guess.

"Personally I think the three of you are kind of nuts about this monster thing." Dads hands were creeping to Brian's tickle spot and I noticed and scooted all the way back until I hit headboard.

"If you guys happen to see him tonight could you get me some autographs." He had Brian in a full tickle lock now. Brain was laughing shouting out promises to get the monsters auto graph. I just smiled at the scene. Dad let him go and wished us good night. Before he left he gave me a good hard look which left me confused.

"What?"

"Is there anything bothering you Chris?" I knew that this was probably a good time to tell him I hadn't been feeling well of late but I chickened out.

"No just tired." Well it wasn't a complete lie. He gave me another look that made me almost regret not telling him and he just gave me a hard nod and left. I let out a breath I had been holding and sunk into Eric's bed.

Brian and I discussed the bedding agreements and I decided that I would sleep on the floor tonight. I figured that I could experiment and see if the wooden floor would somehow help me sleep. I also figured that if I 'got down on the monsters level' so to speak it would convince Eric once and for all that they were no supernatural things living under his bed. I could see that Brian felt kind of bad for taking the bed while I took the floor but I never complained about it so he never brought it up.

A voice drifted down from above barely audible but just loud enough to make out words. The sleeping bag was wrapped around me making me sweat despite the cool temperature of the house. Brian was lying in his bed apparently listening to the boys upstairs. From where I was on the floor I couldn't see anything except the ground but I could hear Brian snickering to himself. The boys were passing time by telling an axe murderer story. Todd was definitely over acting ruining any sort of seriousness from the story. But Eric has always been scared easily.

I listened as Todd told the story something about a thump-thump noise in the woman's apartment. Brian slipped out of bed and grabbed Eric's hockey stick walking out of the room in a sinister manner. I rolled my eyes and sat back into the sleeping bag. I was burning up in the thick second skin of the sleeping bag and I was so tired from lack of decent sleep. My eyes slowly began to droop and before I could even realize that I was drifting off I fell into a deep sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form. I only own Christine.**

The next morning I freed myself from the sleeping bag and stretched my arms feeling fully refreshed. I hopped up off the floor feeling strangely upbeat for once. But when I looked around the room was a total wreck. Eric's clothes were strewn around the room his drawers pulled out of the shelves his toys on the floor, it was just a mess. I looked around with my jaw to the floor and then my earlier peaceful happiness disappeared as I fumed. I marched downstairs and found Brian asleep on the couch. I strode to the couch and shook Brian awake nearly knocking him off the couch.

"Uh, what is it Chris?"

"What did you do to Eric's Room?"

"I didn't do anything! The monster did it!"

"Oh! You have got to be kidding me! Brian I can't believe you! You wreck your brother's room and then you blame it on the monster. That's not funny Brian its cold and I can't believe you would do that!"

He was quiet for a while just sitting up in the couch looking at me shocked and looking a bit hurt.

"I swear I did not do that to Eric's room. In fact I can prove it to you! Stay one more night with me and I'll show you!"

I wasn't moved at this statement, not by a mile. But then I saw his expression. His eyes were pleading and he looked like he was desperately hoping that I believed him. I felt myself calm down and I sighed.

"Fine, Brian. But, if you're lying you're gonna get it."

Brian smiled satisfied and got up from the couch and scurried upstairs to the attic. I just sighed disappointed and slightly worried for my little brother. For a second it looked like he truly believed in the monster. Brian arranged for the both of us to stay one more night in his room and before I knew it night was quickly coming. At the dinner table Brian scarfed down his food and quickly ran away from the table. I raised an eyebrow and finished my food. When I had finished I dumped my plate in the sink and ran after him.

I entered his room and Brian was hunched over a bunch of what I recognized as gears and the chain from his wrecked bike. I liked how he used the old parts from his bike; at least it wasn't a total waste because after that run in with dad's car he ain't ever riding that thing again. I admired Brian's work; the kid had always had a knack for this kind of thing. I looked at the precision of the gears, wires, and springs attached to Eric's bed with admiration and a slight bit of cluelessness. I could understand what the contraptions purpose was. It was going to block off the monsters only escape route; the bed itself. It was a cleverly thought out trap.

"Brian is this a trap for the monster?"

"Yeah, I bet double or nothing with Eric that I could make it one more night. I'm gonna catch it Chris."

I gave Brian a worried look then a 'yeah whatever' and went over to my bed. I watched him finish his trap except for a few more small details that he explained we would do after mom and dad fell asleep. When night came Brian insisted that I stay on the bed with him because of the monster. I just rolled my eyes and climbed in beside him.

A bright light flashed in our eyes and our mom lowered the flashlight and turned it off. "Hey Eric wanted you to have this."

Mom walked over and placed the flashlight on the bed table and turned to us. "Are you two feeling alright?"

"We're fine mom, never been better." I smiled in agreement. Mom wasn't buying it.

"Well, then what are you two doing in bed at 9:15 at night."

"School mom. Got a big day ahead of us,"

"Big, big, day." I finished for him. We gave assuring smiles.

"Sounds nice but why don't I believe you?" Mom pulled on the collar of her painting shirt in a triumphant sign of catching us in our little lie.

"It's the new me." Brian defended.

"Are you getting an upgrade too Chris?" Mom asked. I just shrugged.

"Okay. Then I'll see the brand-new, all-new you in the morning." Mom kisses our forehead and walks to the door.

"Hey mom." Mom turns around to face us.

"I love you." Brian tone suggested that he was saying it for the last time. I couldn't help but wonder if what we were doing was serious.

"I love you too mom." I said with a smile and the same tone Brian used.

Mom obviously didn't see that coming. Brian and I didn't vocally say I love you much anymore. She looked up puzzled but happy. "I love you guys too."

"Goodnight." I said

"Night." Mom closed the door and the room fell into darkness again.

Brian jumped out from under the covers the second the door was closed. He switched the light on and took out the final rope for the rigging out of the metal basket near the door and finished the rig. While he did that I opened the bag of Doritos and laid them out in a neat square around the entire perimeter of the bed. When we were finished and satisfied with the trap we hopped into bed and waited. At a quarter to midnight Brian fell asleep I didn't bother to wake him up and let him sleep for a few hours. I didn't want to take any precious sleep from him.

At first I was just restless because of the stress this move has inflicted on me. Now I couldn't fall fast asleep anymore the closest I've gotten was a napping sleep and that wasn't nearly enough for my exhausted brain and body. Today was a blessing but I had a feeling I wasn't going to fall asleep tonight. I had thought about taking some sleeping pills or at least the safe natural stuff that just made you sleepy anything to help me sleep.

Like I had thought I didn't bat an eyelash through the whole night. I laid there with Brian listening to the soft sound of his breathing mixed with the sounds of the night. Nothing stirred everything was peaceful almost tranquil. Two o'clock came and gone then three and four, then 5: 30 came. Miraculously I had lightly dozen off but a sound woke me from my sleep. It was a crunching sound, a loud crunching sound coming from under the bed. My grip on Brian's shoulders tightened and I remained as still and silent as a statue. I couldn't believe it. My brothers were right.

I listened to it eat and I was almost shocked that it ate so stereotypically sloppily. Brian stirred in the bed and I clamped a hand over his mouth and lightly shook his shoulders. His eyes flew open alert and awake and he turned to me. I nudged my head towards the floor on my side and his eyes widened as he listened to the monster eat the Doritos we had left for it. Brian reached his arm over without a sound and grabbed the brake handle. He grabbed the scissors and poised the scissors above the rubber band. I gave his shoulders a squeeze and he nodded and then cut the rubber band in one fluid motion. The bed collapsed nearly knocking me off the edge with the impact.

Brian smiled proudly that the trap had worked according to plan; he grabbed the flashlight and shined the light around the room in big sweeping motions. Growls and heavy breathing along with a scurrying sound filled the room. Whenever it was audible Brian would sweep the flashlight over the area but each time he would just miss it. Then it stopped and with it my heart. When you're hearing growls come up frequently and then they just stop that's bad. I hugged onto Brian protectively and searched the room for any sound of movement anything to signal where this thing was.

Just when I was about to try and calm myself down I felt the bed sink beneath us from behind. My eyes widened and I felt a figure lean forward from behind. A hand flew over Brian's chest, I leaped into action. I took a firm grip on the arm and did an instinctive judo throw propelling the shape over my shoulder. The monster grabbed my arm and took me to the floor with it. The monster thrashed wildly and I fought back just as enthusiastically. Brian jumped off the bed and helped me by pinning the arms above its head.

The lights flipped on and dad stood in the doorway looking at us in shock.

"Dad a monster!" Brian looked around confused looking for the monster that was present just a second ago. "What are you two doing?"

"Look at this mess, what the hell am I stepping in, Doritos Jesus!"

I looked around at the crumbs of smashed Dorito chips scattered along the floor. "We'll clean it up." I could tell dad was not at all pleased with us right now.

"Damn right you will. Get back in bed you two!"

"But Dad there was a monster in here. You got to believe us!" Emotion ran through my words and I was a bit shocked hearing myself talk with so much enthusiasm. Especially when I hadn't believed there was a monster until a few seconds ago. It wasn't enough to convince dad though he wasn't fazed by my persuasive tone.

"Chris it's a pile of clothes. You're wrestling a pile of clothes." He kicked the clothes in question to make a point the sleeves moved subtly and a small burp emitted from the clothes. I couldn't help but giggle and Brian smiled too.

"What's so funny?" Dad didn't find anything amusing and he was making it crystal clear to us. "After you're done cleaning this room tomorrow you two are going to clean out the garage," He went to leave the room he grabbed the door knob and it fell out in his grasp. Anger was evident on his face and his fist tightened over the knob. "And after the garage you're going to cut the hedges."

"But it wasn't our fault." Brian defended.

"After the hedges you're going to mow the lawn." I winced and shut my eyes in pain, we were burying ourselves. Brian tried to convince him again he tore himself away before he could inflict even more punishment on us. With his jaw clenching he grabbed the door and ended the conversation with a forced goodnight and shutting the door; leaving us in darkness with the monster.

Brian and I exchanged glances and then stared at the clothes. Brian looked over at me with an unsure expectation. I realized he was scared and I was too, but I was the oldest. Brian picked up the hockey stick and subtly leaned the hockey stick in my direction in a silent offer. I stood up and crouched near the clothes letting Brian hold onto the hockey stick. I stood over it for a few seconds unsure how to go about what I was going to do. I scolded myself it was just a pile of clothes…right? I raised a hand and poked it where the shoulder would have been before quickly retracting my hand.

When nothing happened I repeated the action with more force to the stomach. The clothes moved slightly. I glanced over at Brian he was on his knees leaning forward now but I could see he was still tense. I turned back to the still motionless clothes determined to prove to Brian we were just scaring ourselves. But, if there wasn't a monster how are these things moving? I reached over and I gently brushed the fabric of the denim shirt out of the way. The collar amazingly folded inwards and my eye brows rose in surprise.

I warily moved the denim shirt over a little to get a better view and looked inside to see a black muscle shirt. The clothes were moving more now but I was so engrossed in what I was looking at I didn't notice. When all I found was clothes I let go of the denim shirt and leaned back satisfied. What was I so worried about, they were just clothes. Brian now more confident since I was successful went over to the cloths with the hockey stick. Brian crouched on the floor near the cloths as still as a statue. I realized he was still scared even though nothing had happened when I had touched the clothes.

I sat down beside him and he looked over at me with a small smile of appreciation. He raised the hockey stick still not comfortable at touching the clothes and gave it a good poke in the stomach. Then out of nowhere the sleeve knocked Bran into the chest knocking him against the wall. The sleeve and just the sleeve had knocked him into the wall. I shouted out in surprise and kicked the pile away with an instinctive jerk.

The clothes started to rise from the floor and with a horrifying realization I realized the monster was real and was reforming. Brian was still in shock from being thrown into the wall and was staring with shock at the pile of cloths that was getting higher and higher off the ground. I grabbed the nearest thing to me, which happened to be Eric's metal laundry basket, and threw it down over the clothes. The clothes growled in protest, violently shaking and thrashing under me. Brian ran to my side and threw all his weight down on the laundry basket. With our combined weight pushing the monster down the basket met the floor. The monster shook and protested and I felt my arms were about to give out.

I climbed on top of the basket and Brian got into my lap. The whole pile of clothes including the worn out sneakers shook some more but after having no successes the clothes stopped moving all together. Worn out panting could be heard echoing in the basket and me and Brian looked down at the motionless clothes. At the same time we both gave a thankful tired sigh. We looked at each other and nervously laughed. But our laughter was cut short as the clothes in an amazing show of strength threw me and Brian up into the air.

Thankfully we hit the bed and not the floor. We got dangerously close though just barely hanging off the edge. Brian and I stumbled on the bed to the head board and watched with open mouthed shock and fear as the monster rose from under the laundry basket to full height. The basket covered its face and its chest was puffed out in an intimidating reveal. Two blue hands with sharpened knuckles grabbed the sides of the basket, yellow sharp claws digging into the surface, and with one fluid motion it tossed it off its head and across the room.

Brian crawled closer to me and I did the same but we didn't reach out to embrace one another. Our gazes were locked on one thing the monster. I couldn't see Brian's expression and I didn't think about it. The only thing that filled my mind was the monster in front of me. I remember asking myself 'what the hell am I looking at?' when I first saw him. My mind had drawn a blank and my thoughts were rendered completely useless to thinking of anything else but the monster.

The monster under the bed bathed in darkness hiding his entire face from a solid view looked at us with dark brown eyes conveying dark intentions. Or at least they did at that moment. The monster, who to my embarrassment, who was most definitely male, walked towards us slowly using his appearance and body movements to intimidate us further. Let me tell you it didn't disappoint. He growled breathily putting his sharp teeth on display. He was blue with dark blue, bordering black, hair in a Mohawk style sticking up in all directions giving the impression it was being neglected a hairbrush. His skin covered in black spots and his head skin folded down his hairline making lines descend down from his scalp to the back of his neck.

He had no eyebrows and his eyes had natural black borders. His ears were folded over halfway, looking like they were being dragged down by a weight. A skeleton earring, yellow in color, dangled from his left ear. His head was slightly swollen making it seem oddly Jimmy Neutron looking. Closer he came to us until the bed stopped him. He leaned in as much as he could with the bed in the way he displayed himself and more to my attention his teeth as he did so. His teeth were sharp and piranha like except for the bottom row of teeth that were almost piranha like with the exception of the canines which were as sharp as the top row.

My eyes widened to the size of saucers and my heart was beating madly threatening to rip my chest open. The only thing other than that this was the biggest mind changing evidence in the history of the world was that I was going to die. He stopped and I dreaded what was coming.

"Boo."

I cocked an eyebrow no longer as afraid, but believe me I was still terrified, but more confused. The monster laughed heartedly obviously amused at his little confusing show. His laugh was hearty but was a bit redneck sounding.

"Keep an eye out for monsters." His eyes popped out of the sockets and shot in our face. I bolted out of that bed scared to death and ran to the door. Brian had the same idea and was at my side. The monster, eyes now normal and in there correct place, hops in front of us. I reach for the door handle my hand only finds air. I look down despairingly at Brian's handiwork and back up to the monster.

"I'll scream." Brian says warningly

"Scream? Good idea. You know what. You scream and your dad gonna come in here with a 12-gauge shotgun and *Boom* blow your head off! Actually I'll scream." The monster took a huge Breath getting in Brian's face.

My protective instinct kicked in as well as my self-defense classes and I slugged the monster in the stomach as hard as I could.

Brian worded my thoughts and yelled "Shut up!" We both ran to the corner of the room where Eric hung his baseball cards and watched the monster heave and cough.

"Great.*cough/wheeze* actually, your dads gonna come in here and find Dorito puke all over the floor what's he gonna say huh?" The monster was hyper, gesturing to every word he said with energy like I've never seen before. He leaned in our faces making me back up filled with comfortableness as he asked us what our father would say if he found Dorito puke all over the floor a thought that also made me uncomfortable, when Eric's baseball card collection caught his eye.

"Wow! Baseball cards, I love baseball cards. Got him, got him, need him, got him, got him, got him, need him, got him, need him, need him, got need him, need him, got em, got em, need em!" He covered his crotch at the 'get em, got em, need em' making a little joke but I hardly found it funny when the comedian was a monster. Brian also not amused grabbed Eric's soccer ball and hurled it at the monster as hard as his arm would allow.

The monster was unfazed and caught it in the chest easily. "Oh! A football! He goes to the 25 yard, the 50-yard line, the 40-yard line," I pushed away the urge to yell at him that that was a soccer football and not the football he was acting out but I guessed it was probably all a part of the joke. Also I just wanted to scream, I mean it was a monster when you see that you just can't help but want to live.

"Stephenson, go for the long bomb!" He threw the soccer ball towards us neither me nor Brian made a move to catch it. It the blinds behind us causing them to roll up with a crash. Early morning sunlight hit the monster, his grin disappeared and he screamed in fright.

"Light! The sun, the sun! Let me go, let me go!" he groaned and grabbed the sides of his head and rolled over the bed and fell off on the other side.

I stood there bewildered. One second the monster was enjoying mentally tormenting us then he was panicking and begging to be turned loose. What did he have to be scared of? He was a monster we're the ones who should be worried/panicked. I looked outside to see the sun clearing the horizon the sky becoming brighter with its rise. Brian nudged my shoulder and held up his clock to my eyes, it was 6 on the dot. We looked over at the monster who had gotten up off the floor and was holding the sides of his head groaning in what I guessed was pain.

The sides of his head started to swell and get bigger like balloons and my eyes widened even more. He held them groaning out a pained ow he held the sides of his head wincing one last time. His hands moved outwards still covering his head then removed his hands. Two horns had grown out of the side of his head that he had been holding. I looked at him completely bewildered and very freaked out.

"Horns! Great, now nobody's going to recognize me!" I just stared at him now with blank eyes. I was done. I had no idea what to think anymore with all that I had seen I was more than willing to stop asking questions and just watch amazed humor and fright.

A panic crossed the monsters face again and he ran over to the bed. Brian seized on this and grabbed the hockey stick and pushed the monster away into the other window. The monster shook groaning with pain. Then out of nowhere smoke rose out from under the monsters feet; the smell of burning filled the air. I scurried to Brian's side. When I examined closely I realized the smoke was a result of him actually burning. He was shaking groaning and squeaking in pain.

"What's happening?" Brian asked sounding just as bewildered as I was.

"I gotta go. I gotta get under the bed." His legs were slowly starting to disappear and shrink folding and wrinkling as they became clothes.

"What's going on?" Brian persisted.

"Bacon and eggs kids, what do you want sunny side up or over easy? Huh?"

Brain looked up at the window; a look of realization crossed his face. "You're dying."

The monsters only response was more seizing looking shakes and groans. His legs were almost completely gone now. Brian looked over at the window again.

"It's the sunlight isn't it? First it disfigures you then it kills you." My eyes widened. The thought of killing the monster never once crossed my mind, neither did the fact that the monster was real but that's beside the point, but now I realized that he really was dying. The smoking and smell was just him burning, and I realized he was going to turn into that pile of clothes forever. Yeah he was a monster and he scared the living daylights out of me but he never hurt us he just scared us. Burning to death especially like this seemed like an awful undeserved punishment just for pulling a few pranks.

"Nah," the monster waved his hand waving off the idea, despite the fact he was smoking away "You're mixing me up with that pansy in the red cape."

I winced and turned to Brian who was just watching it unfold.

"Please," he begged "I have to get-I have to get under the bed before-before the sun totally rises."

"Uh, uh, no way you wrecked my bike. You've been pulling stuff trying to get me in trouble."

The monster was down to his head he looked at Brian softly saying his name in a sort of beg. He groaned and cried out. He looked at me with an expression of pure plead and pain before he closed his eyes and his head sank into the collar of the clothes and disappeared. This victory was very hollow indeed. I felt nothing but guilt, it didn't hurt us and I hadn't set out to hurt it. But the monster was gone and I felt horrible. I guess we had a right to do this. He invaded our home scared us and damaged our property but…death. It didn't help that when he looked at me I suddenly saw Brian's pleading face in his.

Brian was motionless but I saw his eyes also fill with guilt. I heard him whisper to himself feeling the hollow victory himself. I looked out the window at the sun just a bit more left before it would clear the horizon. I knew what I was going to do. Even though I was probably going to kick myself for doing it later. I jumped down off the bed and gently grabbed the clothes. Brian joined me and lifted the bed and I slipped the clothes swiftly under. Brian dropped the bed and we scooted over to the bed side table.

"I felt so bad. I didn't want to kill it." I whispered to Brian.

"I thought I did…but then I felt really bad."

As if he had heard us the bed lifted right off the floor; the monster standing beneath. He held up the bed easily in a show of strength with one arm and he looked submerged in an inky pool of black from the waist down. The monster wore sunglasses and he laughed, obviously unfazed or had recovered amazingly fast from his near death experience.

"(Laugh) Hey kids! The names Maurice and I'll catch ya later." He gave us one last laugh before he disappeared into the shadows the bed collapsing to the ground after him.

Brian and I exchanged grins. 'Maurice huh?' I thought with a smile. Out of nowhere Brian and I broke out in a fit of giggles.

"Oh man. Do you think he'll really come back Chris?" Brian asked me. Brian didn't seem so put off by the idea as he might have been just a few minutes ago. I glanced over at the bed before looking back at Brian and answering both excited yet filled with dread.

"Yep."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way. I only own Christine. This will also have elements of the original script that I also do not own. Not much but some will.**

I survived another day at school and walking home I realized that we a load of work to do. I groaned and felt like breaking my leg I was that desperate but I just sucked it up and got it over with. When our tasks were done a heaping pile of garbage bags had formed at the side of the garage. Brian and I leaned back against the garage, enjoying shade and relaxation after work. Eric hopped out of the house happily tossing a softball up and down in the palm of his hand. He walked towards us and his steps became heavier and heavier as he drew nearer.

"Hey guys." Eric greeted although with his tone it seemed very bland.

"Hi." This was all Brian and I responded with.

"So was there a monster?" His tosses became a measly rolling from hand to hand and his face was unsure and seemed a little scared of the answer he would receive.

"Well, yeah sure there was one." Brian replied with a short laid back tone.

"But there no more right?"

"Right, your room is monster free. So I'll be taking my master suite back tonight."

I was glad that Brian had told Eric if I had I would have probably would have spilled everything and scared him. Dads voiced rang out over the yard calling our full attention. We went and looked around the corner of the garage to see Dad looking out from behind the screen of the window.

"Bri, Eric, Chris, have you guys seen the remote thing? I've got the Celtics, the Socks, and the Masters are on. I can't switch it without the…remote."

We looked around at each other. I shrugged and shook my head; I honestly had no idea where the dumb remote was.

"I didn't take it dad!" Eric yelled out to dad. I looked over at Brian and faintly wondered if the remote was taken by Maurice but Brian didn't look over at me and I just let it go. Probably just fell in between the couch cushions.

Dad did not bring up the remote for the remainder of the day and Brian and I stayed out of his hair and in our room. Brian was rummaging through his closet while I was reclining on my bed a sketchbook in hand. Brian muttered to himself a trait he used when he was in deep thought, most of it unidentifiable, I just went on sketching stopping every once in a while to give one certain mutter confused recognition. I was drawing the monster Maurice, not really drawing more of doodling out of boredom. I had finished my homework already, as I did every night, read all my books and now I was left with nothing to do to keep my attention except lazy doodling.

I looked up from my sketchbook to see Brian still muttering walk out of the room with his gaze glazed over with his thoughts. I was too absorbed into what I was doing to bother asking what he was up to. The drawing was almost finished just a few more touches and it would be of my approval. Brian came back up a garbage bag in hand when I finished my picture. I had my approval but it wasn't my favorite, it looked more animated than I preferred. I tossed it into the garbage pail before coming to Brian's side.

Ripping the bag open he reached in and pulled out yards of colored Christmas lights. Once all the Christmas lights were dumped out on the floor he crumpled the bag and flung it to the side. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the hanging clips. I watched Brian as he worked, he strewn the lights on the wall, plugged them in to an extension cord attached to a circuit switch all while muttering words of his expertise on his task. This kid never ceased amazing me; how he gets F's in science I have no idea.

He added a few more lights into the circuit ranging from strong to weak; big to large before he stepped back satisfied. Extension cords crisscrossed over the bedroom floor and the entire low ceiling as well as all four walls of the room was covered in lines of Christmas lights.

"That's a lot of light. Isn't this a bit much Bri?" I asked

"I'm just giving us some insurance. It's better to be safe than sorry besides I want to see what's up with the whole 'turning into cloths when the light comes on' thing."

"I guess that reasonable protocol. I just don't want you to burn him to death on the spot with all the light like an ant under a magnifying glass okay. I've been wondering about the light thing myself though. I think it's like a form of camouflage to avoid getting caught."

Brian just nodded hopping onto his bed a look of thought on his face. "You touched him." Brian snickered loudly an impish smile on his face.

"Oh don't you use that on me! I didn't even believe you until he actually reformed from the clothes okay. If I recall you were in the corner shaking from fear and I was the one who actually got the nerve to touch it." My voice came out annoyed and Brian's snicker just grew bigger as I became more and more defensive.

"Hey I got the hockey stick and poked it." His earlier plot to make me annoyed forgotten for the more worthy cause of protecting his ego from bruising.

I just gave him a cocked eyebrow. He looked at me with the identical annoyed expression I just gave.

"At least I didn't peek inside his shirt. You didn't have to look inside the clothes. Bet him showing up was enough to get you to believe huh?" He remarked, his smirk returned ever stronger and he looked at me with a smile of victory knowing he had me in a corner.

My mind coming up with no clever comebacks that would beat his I just leaned back and huffed. His smiled widened and I scowled. Inflating this kid's ego was not a very good idea. Just the thought of having to deal with a big ego older Brian made me cringe. I would much rather keep him this way: a cocky, annoying, and sometimes rude but honest good hearted Brian.

The day went on in a rather bland normal way. Nothing happened and at dinner no one spoke of anything that brought a smile to the face. Dad and Mom didn't bring up the monster business of the night before and neither I nor Brian brought it up. Now, my parents aren't bad not at all, they just get wrapped up in their own little world. They mostly just ask the questions that are in the how was your day category. The move made it even worse, another reason why I really haven't talked to them about my sleeping or headaches. I figured I would wait until we got settled then I would bring it up.

The sun sank slowly beneath the horizon and Brian and I were both sitting in our beds wide awake and alert waiting. I assured the still questioning Brian that I was sure that Maurice would come back. After all it's not like we can stop him from coming we don't have a lock for the bed and he can lift the bed easily. This didn't comfort me. Like I said before I was scared of him or at the very least uncomfortable around him. He was still a monster.

Brian was lying in bed holding the circuit switch close to his chest ready to flip the switch at any moment. I sat tensed in my bed. I have to admit despite my fear I was curious to see Maurice again it's not every day you meet a monster. We sat there waiting before Eric's cry rang out from across the hall. The remote flew onto Brian's chest from under his bed and I watched as the monster slipped out from under the bed.

"Hey, why'd ya change rooms with that whiffle ball huh? You know, he's gonna have a heart attack by the time he's ten." Brian flipped the switch watching intently as the monster groaned and quickly turned into the pile of clothes from before. I sunk to the far side of my bed choosing to stay out of it until I saw the right time to come out.

"I get it," Brian exclaimed excitedly "So when it's dark your eyeballs get bigger but when the light comes on you turn into clothes."

"Oh brilliant Bri, just brilliant, you must be in what at least grade two?" Maurice asked with sarcasm.

Brian all the excitement from the earlier discovery gone retorted "Six."

The monster gasped voice still filed with sarcasm. "A worldly scholar, super I love it. Now how about lighting a candle, these lights are painful man." The clothes squirmed around on the floor for emphasis.

"No way, I got enough problems without you running around getting me into more."

"You got your stupid remote control back now turn off the lights." Maurice reasoned.

Brian looked at me for confidence I just shrugged. I don't know why he was looking at me I had no idea what to do in this situation. There wasn't anything I could really add at this point. He picked up the remote jiggled it a little bit. He seemed to notice something and put it up to his ear while he shook it.

He slapped the monster where his shoulder should have been. "Hey, what about the batteries?"

"I ate em for breakfast. I'd give em to you now but double a-batteries constipate me okay maybe a little later."

"That's gross. Hey, and what about my bike?"

Maurice seemed to be becoming impatient. "I'll get you a new bike; just get me out of these cloths."

Brian jumped onto the bed escaping the slapping sleeves of the clothes, he shushed the monster.

"Honest I'm burning up! My inner seams are on fire!" he emphasized fire in a high pitched pained whine.

Brian gave in "Okay fine but any funny moves and your cloths."

He flipped the switch and the circuit blew causing a few sparks and the bigger lights to go out. The Christmas lights casting dim light in the room were the only lights that still shined true. Maurice grew and became a monster again. Out of instinct I pulled myself into the shadows that always covered my side of the room. I watched Maurice shake himself off and look side to side before looking over at Brian. He ran over and hopped onto the bed by his side.

"Graze boy graze. Oh you're pretty sharp kids. Oh, you're ugly but you're sharp. Speaking of which where's the little lady? I looked for her room but couldn't find it."

Brian pointed Maurice in my direction. Maurice spotted me sitting in the bed quietly. I waved.

"Oh there you are you're so quiet I didn't even know you were there. Come on out honey."

I slowly stood and walked over to the monsters side since Brian was near the headboard of the bed.

"So you're Bri's sister huh?"

"Yep."

"You the oldest?"

"Yeah." I said being blunt.

"You're not much of a talker huh?"

"I can I just choose not to."

"Okay, but what are you doing sharing a room with your brother. Shouldn't a young lady like yourself have your own room?"

"It's only temporary until the other room is fixed up. Besides I'm more interested in talking about you."

"You want to talk about little ole' me?" He pointed to his chest in a humbled gesture.

I rolled my eyes "Well yeah. It's not every day you meet the monster that lives under your bed."

"It's not every day that I get caught either. I've been in this business for well over 200 years and I've never been trapped once." He leaned close to my face and I leaned back.

"Oh come on I'm just kiddin lighten up."

I shrugged my shoulders getting comfortable. "So does that have anything to do why you came back tonight?"

"Actually it has everything to do with it." He smiled and laughed but there was and undertone in his laugh that I just barely caught and it didn't sound as kidding as he was trying to convey it as.

"How old are you?" Brian asked. Maurice had bounded of the bed after his last comment and was walking over to the mirror looking around the room.

"Eleven. Oh and I ain't getting any prettier." He looked at himself in the mirror before running back over to us.

"You're eleven?" I asked.

"Yep, I sure am babe."

"I'm sorry but I find that hard to believe." I said with a questioning look with my arms crossed.

"Eleven, seventeen, what's it matter?" He laughed. I found this quite disturbing until I realized that he probably has been alive for over two hundred years. So logically time and age would not matter to him anymore since so much time has passed. I wondered faintly what that would be like not worrying about time. I thought of it as a blessing.

"Hey dudes," he said running to the other side of the bed "Come here kids."

We ran over to Maurice and he rested both his hands on Brian and me opposite shoulders. "You don't know it yet but tonight is your lucky night."

"What do you mean?" Brian asked confused.

"Well I mean-,"

"Oh I know, I know. You're gonna grant us three wishes right?"

"Wishes!" Maurice exclaimed incredulous, almost offended. Maurice startled me so much I stumbled over and fell onto the bed. I was still rather shaky around him. I think it would take me a little while to get used to him completely. Brian was actually pushed on the bed by Maurice.

Maurice kneeled on the bed over Brian. "Wishes are bush league leprechaun pal!" He lightly tapped Brian's head at pal Brian held is hands over his face in instinct defense.

"I'm a monster okay. Okay, listen to this, I'm a monster and monsters don't do wishes." He jumped onto the other edge of the bed. Brian and I crawled over to either side of Maurice.

"Then what do monsters do?" I asked still very curious the monsters nature and world beneath our beds.

"Good question; I have the time of my life!"

He slid down to the floor and us with him. Then the bed lifted up off the ground as if by magic and leaned backwards into the shadows of the bed. I flinched my hands outward when his head connected to the floor but when his head went THROUGH the floor I covered my mouth with my hands in shock. He shouted out into the shadows below before rolling back up onto his feet. The bed collapsed behind him and he held out his arms with reveal.

"Ta-da!"

"How do you do that?" Brian asked a shocked smile on his face.

"Yeah." My voice came out shaky and amazed. Maurice smiled at me obviously amused by my surprise.

"It's magic Chump! It is, you just got to be handsome and gorgeous like me, or have someone handsome and gorgeous like me show you how to."

I analyzed the info and the wheels in my head started to turn. Have someone like him show you how if that's the case then that must mean.

"Chris and Brian Stephenson come on down." Maurice's voice knocked me out of my daze. Yeah that. It must mean he was going to take us down with him.

Brian looked at the ground and he waved off the idea with "I can't."

Maurice jumped up and looked at Brian with a look of determination on his face.

"You can't but I didn't hear your sister say anything. How about it babe, you in?"

I bit my lip and looked down. "If Brian isn't going I'm not."

"All this can't from you two. I'm surprised! You know what you can't do? You can't jam a Basketball, you can't have a hand-grenade go off in your lap and survive. Those things you can't do but you can take a walk…on the wild side." He held his hands up grinning walking away from us to make a point.

He moved with so much energy in his gestures and he acted so goofy that I couldn't help but giggle. He seized on this and turned to me.

"So what do you say kids, wanna take a walk on the wild side."

Brian looked up at me torn. I could see he wanted to go and I admittedly wanted to go too. Very badly the looming temptation of being given the opportunity to visit the kingdom of monsters was overwhelming. I thought but then I realized something.

"How do I even know if we could come back once we went?"

"Oh Chrissi, you gotta learn to trust people. Listen to me," he put a hand on my shoulder and a hand on his chest as he said listen to me "what goes on down there is every kid's fantasy."

He pulled us over to the bed and pushed an arm over our chest forcing us to lay back. "Imagine if you will. Imagine a world solely of kids, kids that just want to have fun." He smiled and launched himself off the bed again.

"And make trouble." Brian stated.

"Trouble, trouble is our code of honor. It's our blood our-our life support system. It's our… "Raison de tetra." That's French."

"Do they all look like you?" It left my mouth before I could stop it and I immediately regretted it. It had been floating around in my subconscious for a while but I hadn't meant to say it. It was still impolite and rude to say even if it was true.

Maurice to my relief took no offense. "Only the good-looking ones." He laughed again and ducked to the floor only to appear at our sides again.

"Think of it guys, no teachers, no rules, and no homework. You hear me boy! I said, I said no parents! Man that alone is worth all the money in the world."

"It's about leaving your clothes where ever it is you want to leave em. It's about never having to clean up after you eat. It about never worrying about being on time." He bounces the alarm clock that had magically appeared in his vest up and down clumsily in his hand causing it to crash to the floor.

"It's about staying up late. Watching whatever it is you want to watch on TV. You want to watch lettermen you wanna watch the playboy channel? It's about nailing someone that bugs you in a way that you never dreamed possible what's that?" he bonked Brian on the back of the head and laughed.

"It's about one hundred percent, unadulterated, where's the beef, anarchy!" He laughed while he described his world to us unknowing impressionable children. I could see Brian's eyes fogging over with the promises of freedom in the monster world below. It really was every kid's dream come true; a world without rules and parents.

But, I wasn't a kid anymore I was a young adult and the world he described seemed like a wolf in a sheep's skin. A world with no restrictions is a dangerous one. I faintly analyzed the monster situation to myself, as I usually did with most things, if this world did have any government structure at all. Someone had to be running it otherwise the whole system, whatever it was, would fall apart. So, what was this world like?

"Brian, it's about freedom. Freedom to live life the creators of this planet intended." Maurice wrapped and arm around Brian's shoulder and held an American flag up beside them. A breeze came out of nowhere making the scene very patriotic.

"Man that sounds great!"

"So what do you say bud you ready?"

Brian placed a hand on Maurice's shoulder. "Maurice I was born ready."

The deal was sealed. Brian was going and I undoubtedly was now too. My love and worry for my brother would never let me just let him go off on this alone willingly. No matter how much a pain in the butt he can be. I would never let myself live it down. Even then, the world below held a sense of danger and temptation that excited me. Despite myself I found that I wanted to go too, to my great annoyance and self-scolding.

"You're coming too right Chris?" Brian was absolutely beaming with excitement.

I sighed and shook my head at the floor with a shrug. A small smile graced my face and I looked at Brian with an 'I can't believe I'm saying this' expression mixed with amusement.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." I said sarcastically.

"Besides, I'm your sister I gotta watch out for ya." I walked over to stand by Maurice ready to go.

"All right Chris! But first, I'm gonna need some insurance." Brian strides over to the bed and picked up the flash light holding it up for display.

"Whoa, there, Thunder-no, no, no! Candles, matches, even something festive like this, this would be nice, but absolutely nada. No bright lights. Okay, bud?" Brian not about to leave the flashlight turns it on and points it towards Maurice menacingly.

"Oh! All right, all right, all right. If you wanna take it, I'm telling you, you got to hide it."

"I'll keep it." Brian said stashing the flashlight underneath his shirt.

"Okay?" Maurice asked hoping for agreement.

"Sure." Brian agreed.

"Sure. Come on." He pushed Brian down by his head to the floor so they were kneeling in front of the bed. I came down and kneeled on Maurice's left side. Maurice lifted the bed up and let go of the frame, yet the bed still magically floated up above the ground. He placed a hand on my back and before I could register anything he pushed me and Brian into the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer- I do not own Little Monster in any way. All of it: plot, characters go to their respective owners. I only own Christine.**

**A/N- Thanks to anyone who is reading and please R&R and tell me what you think.**

The feeling of falling spread throughout my entire body as I fell. I was numb from shock and a tingling feeling went through my fingertips up through my arms and covered my whole body. Brian's cry for Maurice pulled me back to reality and when the reality that we were falling set in I reacted by flailing my arms and screaming my throat hoarse. Everything and nothing ran through my head going as soon as they came. I was convinced of one thing, we were going to die. We hit the ground with loud thumps proving me wrong. My body bounced as it hit and I coughed and heaved trying to get the air that was knocked out of me back.

From above me I could hear Maurice cackle. My body was sore from the fall and I knew that I was probably going to have a few bruises in the morning. I propped myself up on my elbows still trying to breath normally and looked above me. Maurice swung in from our bedroom. He let go of the floor and gently floated to the ground. I looked in bewilderment as he floated expertly shaking his feet down to the ground near us.

Once Maurice found solid ground beneath his feet he laughed and leaned down offering a hand to Brian who was lying right next to him. "Hey bud." Brian took his hand and stood up mesmerized by the underworld. Maurice walked over to me and held out a hand.

"Need a hand little lady?" I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet easily as if I weighed nothing. He put his hand on my upper back steadying me when I stumbled and when I had some solid footing I glared at him.

"What was that? I-I thought we were falling to our deaths Maurice! That wasn't funny. You better give me an explanation pronto."

"Babe, trust me. You weren't in any harm you just aint a monster, only monsters float to the ground."

"And you couldn't have told us this instead of pushing us in unaware?"

"I'm sorry if I seriously scared ya I was only kiddin'."

Still furious I opened my mouth about to go on an angry rant but when I looked up at him smiling goofily with his brown eyes filled with a slight amusement but apology the angry words I were about to spout melted on my tongue.

"It's okay." My tone was still angry and it was halfhearted but it was a cave in nonetheless and enough for Maurice who smiled satisfied and went over to Brian.

I looked around examining the underworld and my wary attitude slowly lessened. I was expecting a dark world like something out of a Tim Burton movie. With everything shrouded in darkness and having a dangerous atmosphere. But in reality it was very whimsical and dazzling. The world was nothing really but a collection of wooden boxes that were nailed rather hastily together making towers. But boy were they impressive, just the sheer height of some of these towers were really intimidating.

Ladders hung down from some of these towers and staircases and wooden bridges crisscrossed up in the air. All of which lead up into an infinite darkness that not even stars inhabited. The only forms of light were a dim red light that came from nowhere and a spark that flew above our head and headed off into another direction.

"What is this place? I mean, I thought the dining room was under Eric's room." Brian asked rotating around stunned but intrigued.

"Well were not in Kansas anymore. Come on and take a look at this."

Maurice led Brian by the shoulder over to a bridge that over looked a few staircases I was a little behind since I was still shocked from that fall into the underworld. Maurice looked around him I guess for me because when his eyes landed on me he smiled relieved.

"There you are," he draped his other arm over my shoulder "Come on, you don't want to get lost down here Hun."

I took notice of the arm draped over my shoulder with slight embarrassment and a bit of awkward uncomfortable feeling and a tad fright but it quickly vanished as soon as it came.

"Take a gander kids. Ain't it amazing?" Brian placed both hands on the fence and leaned over evaluating the scene below. Monsters scurried along the paths in between the fences and up the stairs. Their voices floated up to us but no words could be sorted through them. The one that caught my attention out of all of them was the monster trying to hit a swinging horse piñata from behind a fence path. This seemed very pointless to me considering he couldn't get a good shot and he was swinging very lazily.

"Wow!" Maurice said with sarcastic enthusiasm, probably not as a remarkable sight when you live in it.

Maurice scurried away down another set of stairs moving sporadically step to step jumping over random number of steps while laughing and cackling. I noticed him jump a good distance ahead of us but Brian was still looking around at everything. Not about to run ahead of him and risk losing him no matter how short the distance was I hung back with him.

Maurice now down the first flight of stairs to the staircase us standing at the top he called up to us.

"Yo, Brian, Chris, move em out. We're burning night light, partners. (Laugh) Come on! Come on! Come on!"

Brian and I scrambled down the stairs and Maurice waited for us. When we were at his side he hopped of the small flight of stairs to the ground we walked down the stairs.

A relatively high voice called Maurice out. "Hey Maurice. I like the horns!"

"Sid!" He held out his arms and they hugged for a millisecond just a bro hug. Brian and I watched the exchange from the sidelines. Sid was a short monster with one head but had two faces. It was a little strange to see but considering we now inhabited the kingdom of monsters I realized that this…sort of appearance was common. Yeah it was going to take a little while to get used to this world.

"I never forget a face. Uh, it's the other one I can't remember. Get outta here bud." He gently pushed Sid away with a laugh and Sid's laughter echoed as he walked away. I looked back at Sid before turning my attention back on Maurice. Maurice hopped up spinning a street sign with an arrow pointing in the direction of Los Angeles on it and ran over to two monster sitting on a staircase having a back and forth 'did not, did too' match. I made sure the sign was pointing in the right direction before returning to my group.

"Ooh. Hey, Al, Riftgut, these are my new buds." He gestured to us and the monsters turned their heads to see.

"Hi, the name's Brian."

"Chris." I waved in one simple motion and Riftgut waved back.

"Hi Brian. Hi Chris."

Maurice scurried away us following behind and the two of them continued their match. Maurice stopped in what looked like a major intersection. I looked up still in awe at how high the towers of ladders and stairs went.

"Wait a second. What are all these stairs and ladders for?" Brian asked.

"Oh, good question bud. Every one of these staircases leads to some poor soul's bedroom. It's like, it's like, let me put this simply. It's a veritable cornucopia of mischief."

"Hey Maurice." Another monster came skipping over towards us a huge plush toy in her arms. She looked relatively normal except for her nose was huge and took up a good portion of her face. Her skin was also a light aquamarine.

"Hey what's that on your shirt?" Maurice said stopping her taking her plush toy pointing to her chest.

"Where?" she looked down and Maurice did the old nose pull trick.

He laughed and pushed her away saying "Get outta here."

"Let me show around," he spun him and Brian around and stopped "I'll show you straight." He then ran off with Brian.

Before running off after them I looked after the other monster. She didn't seem upset she was laughing just as much as Maurice had. I smiled a bit and ran after the boys. When I found them they were running under a bridge with another bridge over it. I ran after them and stopped next to Brian. He smiled at me and I smiled back. Maurice was running across the bridge doing a goofy plush toy suicide situation in which the plush toy fell to its doom.

Maurice stopped before running into some dangling poles.

"Kolmar this is Brian and Chris. Brian and Chris, Kolmar." He laughed and ran off. Me and Brian looked up confused and it turns out the dangling poles were legs.

"Trick or treat smell my feet."

"No thank you." I mumbled as I swiftly walked under Kolmar's legs after Maurice Brian following behind.

Maurice led us through the winding infinite maze of boxes and staircases until I was dizzy and almost sick to my stomach with nerves. We were so far from our staircase… I still was very wary of Maurice even if he seemed to be a ditsy comedian monster. I tried to calm myself through reasoning telling myself that if he had wanted to hurt or kill us he would have done so already but it still didn't stop the rock of worry from settling in my stomach.

Maurice led us through the underworld with a few cackles and giggles now and then. He brought us into a room covered with mirrors. It looked like one of those rooms you found in a fun house like the maze of mirrors. I looked around seeing nothing but my reflection. I focused on my reflection for a second. Green t-shirt and brown shorts long honey brown hair flowing down my back slightly disheveled and teal eyes with bags under them. I pursed my lips slightly but returned my attention to the group.

He laughed and cackled to himself while rubbing his hands together. "You're gonna love this place! Now the magic word, Ahh, I forget the magic word. It's uh…, it's uh…"

Maurice's face screwed up and Brian shouted 'think' like a cheer trying to help. Maurice farted and the doors swung open.

"That's it!" he laughed and pulled Brian in to the room.

I grimaced grossed out that Maurice had farted and the doors opened but it was quickly brushed off after I took a look at the room. It was a huge arcade room with every arcade game you could think of. It was every video game freaks dream comes true. What kid didn't love arcades, I loved arcades. I broke out into a huge grin and bulleted to the nearest game. It was a classic PAC-MAN machine; I'm a sucker for old classics. I looked for a coin insert and found none just the button. I pushed it and the game came to life.

I grinned and started the game. I was doing pretty well, I was on level 5 just about to finish when arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me from my game.

"Hey, cut it out!" I struggled to get out of the arms but the arms tight grip didn't waver for a second. I started to panic and thrash around hitting the person a few times but stopped when I heard the familiar voice of Maurice.

"Hey calm down babe!" I stopped and he put me down. I brushed myself off and turned around to see Maurice rubbing the parts of his arms I had hit.

"Damn babe did you have to hit me." He whined continuing to rub his arms.

"Yeah I did you scared me half to death, again!"

"Come on, dance with me Chris!" Maurice said ignoring my reply.

He started to dance like a squirrel on caffeine jumping around to the music blaring above us from some unseen speakers. I looked at him with a blank face not knowing what to do but after watching him for a few second my face slowly melted into an amused smile. He looked like he was having so much fun that I just couldn't help but want to jump in and dance with him. This was exactly what I did.

I jumped next to him and started to freely dance. I just danced next to Maurice and Maurice seeming to notice I joined in, laughed. He grabbed my shoulders and spun us around before slapping an arm over my upper chest and pulling my back on his chest. Then as soon as I hit his chest he spun me around to face him now a foot away. He had this goofy smile and his eyes were gleaming with excitement.

"Come on Chris, let's go find Bri."

I just nodded and ran after Maurice. I was honestly starting to like Maurice. We found Brian playing a pinball machine. Maurice ran up behind him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Hey, isn't this neat Bri? Oh, oh, oh! Free ball! Free ball!" Maurice pushed Brian out of the way and shook the machine causing it to light up and the number counter to jump. Brian must not have noticed because his face screwed up in a mix of annoyance and anger.

"Hey! What are you doing you're going to tilt it!"

"I know you're face! OW!" Maurice backhanded the monster that had made this comment, while he was walking near us, causing the poor fella to fall over. I jumped out of the way of the falling monster looking down at him for a second before looking back up at Maurice.

"Get on, baby. Holly bubbe. Open your eyes. Don't ya know, down here, there's no such thing as "tilt"." He laughed and continued to shake the machine. Brian grinned at this new discovery and looked excitedly at the machine and Maurice, cheering him on as he played the game. I just smiled from the sidelines then wandered around becoming bored of watching them. There were so many games it was hard to choose.

I wandered in between the isles of the games viewing each one, stopping when I spied a crane machine. I actually won something believe it or not. I got lucky and snagged a cap by the back size strap. It was a black Beetle hat with 'the sixth beetle' in red letters on it. I put it on brushing my bangs out of my face so I could see. Maurice came skidding around the corner his head snapping from side to side. When his eyes locked on me worry that was on his face melted away. Worry? Why was he worried about me?

Maurice practically marched over to me and put both his hands on my shoulders demanding my attention.

"Babe, don't run off like that. I told ya you do not want to get lost down here."

"Where am I gonna run off to-and would you calm down." I said untangling myself from his grip.

"I was just playing some of the games okay and besides why would I run off and leave my little brother, huh?"

"I don't know-hey where'd you get that?

"What?"

"The hat." Maurice said flicking the cap up with his finger.

"From the crane." I said

"Really, oh what was I saying? Oh yeah, maybe you'd leave him because you're annoyed with him, and hate him because he's a pain." Maurice said listing them off.

"Oh he is a pain but he's my pain. I got to watch out for him."

"It's dangerous for you to run off like that. You don't know your way around you could get lost. Then what are you gonna do huh? You're not gonna have me to protect ya if that happens." Maurice said.

"I was just having fun. But if it bothers you I'll stay with you _mother_."

Maurice narrowed his eyes in offense at me and I just giggled.

"Alright, alright, I get your point. I won't run off again."

Maurice smiled and nodded resting a hand on my shoulder.

"Well, if you liked this room enough to run off from a monster as good lookin' as myself, you are going to love the next one!" he laughed and pulled my hand dragging me off to the next attraction.

I just rolled my eyes at his antics. Maurice pulled me back over to Brian who was still leaning over the pin ball machine trying to beat Maurice's score.

"Ahem," Maurice said clearing his throat. Brian turned around his attention on us. Maurice pointed above my head. "Found her."

"Jeez Chris where'd you go? Maurice was off doing a whole sweep of the place."

"Well, sorry if I just wanted to play a few games. Man, I didn't think you would notice if I just left for a few seconds."

"Come on kids, there's something that waits that I know you guys are going to love."

Just like Maurice he ran off laughing and hooting excitedly. Brian and I ran after him, off to see what the rest of Maurice's world had to offer. He led us into a hall with descending stairs and we climbed down excitedly. When we came to the bottom of the stairs I looked with absolute joy at the room. It was a food room with every kind of junk food you could think of on a long table. Monsters crowded around it trying to get a piece of this or a slice of that. Above beads and string with various shiny objects on them hung down acting almost like chandeliers.

Candles illuminated the room making almost everything visible. The monsters at the table varied and each had their own unique quality about their appearance. Maurice laughed rubbing his hands together.

"This is my favorite place on the whole planet!"

"Yeah, I think it's mine too." I said looking at him with a huge smile.

"I knew you'd like it." He said laughing

Maurice ran over parallel to the table describing the scene to us.

"Every craving you've ever craved, every flavor you've ever flaved. Ha-ha! And the best part is, you don't see any of the parents trying to tell the kids what they can't eat, do ya?"

"No." Brian replied looking over the food with hungry eyes.

"Do ya?"

"No!" Brian replied with more emotion and volume then the last answer.

Maurice Laughed and started to grab slices of pizza and stuff them into his vest.

"Za, I love Za."

"Cake," he grabbed a whole round cake and stuffed that into his vest too "for later."

I snorted out a laugh and Maurice turned to me.

"Something funny babe?"

"You just stuffed a cake into your vest."

"It's for later, in case one of you twerps get hungry while were out."

"Yeah nothings more appetizing then a smashed cake." I pointed out with a sarcastic smile.

"Well I could always leave you here with them." He pointed a thumb to the monsters behind him and I quickly smiled up at him.

"I was just joking. It was a nice thought."

Maurice smiled and draped an arm around my shoulder.

"Hey I don't like bickering. I'm here to show you a good time not bicker with ya. But the fun is only beginning babe. Wait until you see what I have in store for you and Bri next."

"What is it?' I asked excitedly

"Ah, ah, ah," he said waving a finger in my face "it's a surprise."

"I like surprises." I said with a smile.

Maurice just smiled mischievously.


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris.**

Maurice grabbed Brian in a rush and we headed off back into the underworld through a tunnel in the back of the food room. Brian bubbling with excitement ran off exploring up ahead while Maurice and I hung back. It was surreal to see Maurice so calm next to me compared to his loud hyperactive usual behavior.

"He's having a ball ain't he?" Maurice said pointing a clawed thumb towards Brian.

"Yeah, it's nice to see that he's having fun. He's been down in the dumps lately."

"If he's been down in the dumps, you're stuck underground."

"Huh?"

"Babe, you really think you're quiet cover can fool ole' Maurice? I call em' as I see em' and you are as depressed as a person can get. You know what you're problem is babe? You don't know how to just let go and have a good time. You don't always have to be worrying about stuff. In other words you are the epitome of a party pooper."

I hung my head in embarrassment. Hearing someone call me a downer really stung.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed. You have promise babe. I saw how laid back you were when you were dancing. You could be the life of a party. You just haven't had someone to show you how."

"And who's going to do that?"

"Me of course. Who else?"

"I don't know…" I said nervously. I rubbed my hands together cracking a few knuckles.

"Babe," he said lolling his head "lesson number one. Trust people. If you don't trust people you get all defensive and distant and no one can have a good time like that."

"Now, trust me. I have a feeling that you and Bri are going to like what I have planned next." He said wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I gave him a weak smile and he smiled widely at me showing off his white pointed teeth.

Maurice laughed and ran after Brian dragging me behind. He grabbed Brian and ran towards a small booth built under a box tower devoid of any staircases or ladders with a huge line of monsters. Maurice hopped behind the very back of the line but didn't wait for long. He soon started to play childish pranks like tying laces together, dropping coins to distract the other monsters, and spilling over a tub of plastic toys. Brian joined in laughing and playing along in the jokes.

Maurice looked over at me with a grin. "Come on join in babe."

"Hey look we can cut to the front now." I said changing the subject pointing to the now cleared pathway to the booth.

"Tsk, tsk." Maurice said looking at me with an odd look of disappointment before hanging his head. We hopped up to the counter and a monster who I assumed ran the booth greeted Maurice.

"Hey Maurice."

"Hey Schmoog."

"Who are the drips?"

"Ease off bud, these rascals," he said shaking our shoulders "saved me from a fatal case of sunburn so decided to give em the grand tour ha-ha."

"Very well. You got a brat in Cleveland."

"A brat in Cleveland."

"An imp in Atlanta."

"An imp in Atlanta."

"And a twerp in Boston."

Maurice took the cards as Schmoog handed them out.

"And a dweeb giving me all this." Maurice mumbled in our ears. I giggled under my breath but quickly stopped at the risk of offending the other monster.

"Raise hell tonight. And show them how it's done." Schmoog cackled darkly.

"I will." Maurice laughed at Schmoog as if the order had a private joke.

"Wait, you're not going to tell me that there's airplanes in this place are you?" Brian asked

"Brian," Maurice said lolling his head "come on, does it look like these hunchbacks can handle a plane?"

I looked away from Schmoog my attention back on Maurice.

"Then how are we going to travel all the way to Cleveland, Boston, and Atlanta?"

He turned to me and he said "Magic." He lifted his hand over and silver sparkles rained down from his hand. Sparkles covered my hair and shoulders and I was pretty sure there were millions of sparkles stuck in my hair now.

He looked over at Brian who was looking at me "Pretty neat trick huh?"

Maurice wrapped an arm around Brian and I's shoulders leading us away from the booth. He went on this rant about how in the underworld distance was like time and time was like…I don't know I was lost in thought by that point. Maurice led us through the underworld to a ladder dangling up from the tower.

"Well, here we are. Ladies first."

I looked at Maurice arm outstretched towards the ladder. He was staring at me with a goofy polight smile waiting for me to make a move for the ladder.

I felt that rock in my stomach again. "Up there?" I asked timidly.

"Come on, don't wimp out on me now babe. If you fall I'll catch you, no big deal. Come on, we don't have all night."

"Yeah come on Chris. I've seen you climb higher what's the big deal?" Brian asked.

The big deal was I never climbed in the dark, I only climbed on trees where there were plenty of branches, and it was pitch black at the up there. The thought of climbing not only in the dark but on a wobbly and probably worn out, ladder at that height made my feet and hands start to sweat.

"Well its either you climb up or I carry you up. What's it going to be?"

My eyes widened and my stomach tightened. I took in a breath filling myself up with a little bit of reassuring confidence and I stomped over to the ladder. I began to climb rung by rung, making my way up like a spider on a web.

"That's the spirit." Maurice said cupping his hands to his face.

I could hear the amused laughter hiding behind his encouragement. "That's the spirit." I repeated mockingly under my breath.

I felt the dangling ladder beneath become tight. Brian and Maurice must have been climbing up the ladder because it began to wobbly and sway from side to side. I grabbed the sides of the ladder tightly staying extremely still, hesitating to look beneath me. When I finally did I saw Maurice and Brian beneath me but also the ground that looked miles away. I felt my stomach lurch and tighten and I started to get a little woozy.

"Don't look down Chris. Keep going your almost there." Brian called out to me.

I shook off the wooziness and directed my attention at the ladder and not at the ground. I scurried up the ladder wanting only for the climb to be over as soon as possible. I climbed up to the shadow and pushed my hand up against it when nothing happened I tried harder.

"Hang on babe; wait till I get up there."

"Okay, whatever you say." I meant to holler this but it came out very softly.

All I could do was hang onto the swaying ladder until the boys reached the top with me. Maurice reached the top first and he looked at me with spiteful glee. I glared back at him with hate and he broke out in laughter.

"You look like a cat hanging on to blinds over a tub of water." Maurice said in between laughs.

I just continued to glare distastefully at him and Brian who had joined in laughing at my expense at Maurice's comment. My face started to cloud over with embarrassment and my cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

Maurice took a deep breath wiping tears from his eyes. "Okay joke's over. Let's get the kitty on some solid ground."

Maurice climbed up next to me and started to make a move to pick me up.

"NO!" I screeched clinging to the ladder for dear life.

Maurice stopped for a second to unclog the ear that was nearest to me with his pinkie then he looked back at me.

"Trust me. I'm not going to let you fall."

He gave a goofy grin and he extended a hand for to take. I looked at him wide-eyed still clinging to the ladder. His eyes unlike his goofy exterior were softly smiling with reassurance and I slowly moved a shaking hand out to clutch onto his.

"That's it Chris you're doing great, just a little bit more."

I slowly shuffled across the rung over to Maurice. When I was near enough Maurice wrapped an arm around my mid-section and then threw me over his shoulder. I screamed bloody murder out to the world below me that seemed miles away. The whole world was shaking and becoming blurry. I felt myself becoming faint until I felt something solid other than Maurice holding me up. Maurice slapped a hand over my mouth and he put a finger to his lips ushering me to be quiet. When my screaming ceased he moved his hand away from my mouth.

"See now how hard was that? You really did act like a cat running away from water though. You know what I think that's what I'll call you from now on, cat." Maurice declared thoughtfully.

My face turned red from either angry annoyance or embarrassment I'm not sure. I don't think anyone would be flattered to be called an agitated cat.

"Either way you learned your first lesson."

"What? What lesson." I asked my voice still shaky from the ladder.

"Your first lesson was to learn to trust me and I think that you got it down mostly. We still have to work on it but you seemed to get it. You're doing great kiddo! I'm sure I'll see the real you in no time."

I was going to argue that I always acted myself but a bump interrupted me.

"Whoops, sorry bud. Ha-ha."

"Wait a minute. This is _somebody else's _house." Brian exclaimed after looking around for a few seconds.

"No duh! Where'd you park the squad car Dick Tracy? Come on?"

Maurice gazed around the bedroom while Brian looked at the arm dangling in front of his face. He made a move to grab the arm but Maurice slammed his hand down over Brian stopping him.

"Chill out babe okay. I mean, your quick, that's good instinct but it's a little…primitive. Huh?"

Maurice smiled and slid out from under the bed along with Brian. I stayed where I was not sure whether or not to move. Technically this was invading another person's home and even if Maurice was a monster I was definitely not a monster. Maurice turned to me and when he saw that I was still in the shadow he grabbed my hand and pulled me out.

"Come on cat, don't be shy. Come up here with your bud and brother." Brian snickered at the nickname Maurice had decided to call me but I just sent him a death glare.

Maurice looked around the room rubbing his hands together in anticipation. A roguish smile lighted his face and his eyes shined with the promise that mischief was ahead. Maurice spotted the boy we were here to torment and he grinned. He dropped down to the floor and crawled up to the side of the bed. Maurice kneeled onto the bed, the springs creaked and groaned in protest but Maurice paid no mind. He chuckled as he looked at the boy who was sleeping soundly in the bed.

Brian had joined Maurice kneeling on the floor at the right side of the bed. I crawled up to the side we had crawled out from laid my head on the bed. I looked up at Maurice to see he was grinning at me.

"Isn't he sweet cat? I bet ya he's dreaming about puppies or his favorite baseball player."

"Yeah." Brian agreed. Clearly he wasn't that interested in what Maurice was talking about.

"Yeah," he turned to me from Brian "here's your second lesson babe. See how the kid is sound asleep?"

"Yes, I see him." I answered not quite sure what he was driving at.

"Well, he won't be asleep for long. Ha-ha, AHHH!" The bed shook as Maurice screamed.

Maurice's scream startled me making me fall over onto the floor. The boy sleeping in the bed wasn't asleep after Maurice had started screaming. He woke up and his screams took place of Maurice's. Maurice grabbed me and pulled me back into the underworld. Like before we fell in but not as fast or as rough as the first time. I hit the ground softly and Brian did the same. I got up and brushed myself off as I looked at a hysterical Maurice. He was on the ground rolling around in the dirt and punching the ground.

He looked almost maniacal in his current state, howling in laughter and close to tears.

"Maurice that wasn't funny." He froze for a second then his head swiveled to face me. His smile was wiped from his face and in its place an almost angry frown. He got up off the ground and walked towards me; in a split second I felt a twinge of fear.

"This is your problem babe. You're all about doing what's right and thinking about others. Well, for once in your life kitty cat think for yourself. Go against the wind, wreak hell, have a little fun."

"But that's not fun Maurice! It's just plain mean."

He lolled his head and gave me a sardonic expression. "You know Chris maybe I was wrong about you. Maybe your just a goodie two shoes who's too uptight to have fun. Maybe for the first time in my life I was wrong. If you don't want to pull some innocent pranks that just toughen up the kids then I'll just take you home and take Bri out with me. I get it."

He reached out to wrap an arm around my shoulder and I backed away. This was the first time that I felt offended by another's accusation. I don't know if Maurice was using reverse psychology on me or the words just touched a nerve. But either way I was offended. I wasn't just going to sweep this one under the carpet like I did with most comments about my behavior.

"Goodie two shoes? Did you seriously just call me goodie two shoes?"

"Well yeah you're defending somebody that just got pranked. So yeah I think it's the appropriate name."

I looked at the floor thinking then looked back up. "You want me to be myself? To quit the entire sullen attitude and just let go and have fun?"

Maurice nodded with a 'yeah I said it before' face.

"Fine, I'll act myself like I do when I'm with Brian _if_ you promise that were just pranking, nothing that's going to hurt anybody. Like the ice cream on our dad's shirt."

Maurice did an x over his heart and lifted his right hand in the air in a pledge. "I give my word as a monster babe. We won't pull anything that will hurt anybody or that you feel will hurt anybody, on one condition."

"Oh, and what would that be?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That you do exactly what you feel like doing when you feel like it and listen to me."

"Okay you got a deal." I extended a hand and Maurice shook it with a grin.

"This goes for you too Bri." Brian nodded in agreement.

Maurice laughed grabbed Brian and me and pulled us off to the next house.

I was quiet for the rest of the walk to the next house. Maurice and Brian talked back and forth laughing and chuckling at things the other said. The scene made me smile. I was glad at least Brian was having fun. Brian seemed to break away from the conversation and he walked back over to me.

"You okay Chris?"

"Yeah Bri I'm fine."

"He wasn't trying to hurt your feelings Chris. He's trying to get you to release as he put it 'your wild side.' He say's I do all the time,"

"Yeah, that's for sure."

"Hey, I'm trying to help here. He says that you need a little push and that he's taken up the challenge to be the pusher."

"Yippee." I said with a twirl of my finger and a fake smile.

"He's right though. When the last time you had fun with me. In what, forever?! This is a one-time thing but will you be Chris my obnoxious annoying big sister again?"

I looked at him with narrowed eyes then grabbed him and put him in a head lock.

"Is this enough for you?" I asked with a grin while Brian struggled to get out of my fierce grip.

"Yes! Yes just let go of me."

I did as he asked me and he brushed himself off indignantly. I chuckled at Brian's annoyed state. Maurice who had been watching was just smiling satisfied with my sisterly behavior I suppose.

"If you two got that out of your system lets go do what we came to do." Maurice said motioning to the staircase. I was just thankful that it was a staircase this time and not a ladder.

"Yep, let's do this."

I climbed ahead of Maurice dodging the arm that tried to grab my shoulder and up to the shadow. Maurice looked over at Brian jabbed a thumb in my direction and Brian just shrugged and jogged up to the shadow. Maurice ran up beside us put a hand on both of our back and walked into the shadow with us in tow. I crawled out from under the bed looking around. It had been so long since I had tried to do a practical joke that I had no idea where to begin.

"You're probably a little rusty babe so just follow my lead." Maurice said

"Okay." I said with an indifferent shrug.

Then we began to spread trouble to the kids of the…world I guess. We did a ton of pranks many of them cruel but not harmful. But by the time we had finished with all the kids that were on Maurice's checklist I was filled with bubbling excitement. I hadn't had this much fun in a long time. So much so that I was pulling pranks I would have never pulled if I was in the same state I was just a few houses before. I didn't care, not at all.

The punishments the kids would undoubtedly receive for what we had done were far from my mind. The only thing running through my mind was adrenaline and excitement. The more I thought about it there was nothing wrong in what we were doing. We were just helping the kids grow up to keep their heads in the right place and show them that things are going to happen that you didn't do. It was just life right, Maurice in a way was life's way of saying 'hey suck it up.'

Right now I was laughing with Maurice and Brian at a joke, leaning on Maurice for balance. Maurice stopped then looked at me as if he was evaluating a car he was about to buy.

"What?!" I asked uncomfortable feeling radiating off me as Maurice circled me like a vulture.

Then he grinned. Maurice just stood there grinning.

"What?!"

"It's nice to finally see the real you babe. Nice to meet ya." He held out a hand and I rolled my eyes and shook his hand.

"I think you're finally catching onto the monster thing cat. Now for your third and final lesson is to learn this, we monsters live in a world dedicated to reeking hell on an entire nation of kids. Ha-ha."

"Oh believe me Maurice. I caught onto that when we hit the first house." I said with a dark chuckle.

"Great, then you are now on the same level with Brian."

"Oh no, I cannot be on any level that Brian is on. Maurice, you got to turn me back into a gray bore!" I said with fake desperation.

Brian just punched me on the shoulder with a 'hey' of indignation that I chuckled at.

"This is great! Now that you're finally acting like the _fun _you the real fun can start." He said with chuckles of excitement.

"The fun me, so, I was me the whole time?"

"Yes and no, you _were_ the quiet you that side tries to hide the real you; the fun side of you. You see what I'm getting at kitty cat."

"Yeah but, what was wrong with the old me?" I asked with a slightly offended tone.

Maurice raised his hands in surrender "Nothing, I just thought that it would be better for you and more fun for Bri and me to see the fun you that's all." He said with a shrug.

I relented, satisfied with the answer he provided, and turned my attention on something else.

"What were you saying?"

"Oh yeah, were the reason that kids get locked in their rooms. Were the reason brothers hate their sisters ha-ha, were also the reason that parents send their kids back to camp. I love it! I'm alive!"

I smiled at Maurice then out of nowhere I had an epiphany.

"Hey Maurice, is it okay if we make a special stop?" I said looking slowly over to Brian grinning from ear to ear. Brian looked back at me with wide-eyed excitement as a smile spread across his face.

"I wanna check somebody out." I said now looking to Maurice for his answer.

"Oh, you're too good. You're just too damn good."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer-I do not own Little Monsters in any way shape or form. All things go to their respective owners. I only own Christine nothing more.**

**A/N- Hope all you readers like how the story is going. Thank you to anyone who is reading. **

Our little trio went galumphing across the underworld towards Ronnie Coleman's. It amazed me how all we gave was Ronnie Coleman's description and Maurice knew him right off the bat. Soon, we reached Ronnie's staircase and Maurice ran up the steps. Brian and I ran after him eager to get up to Coleman's room. He wrapped his arms around our waists and jumped up into the shadow with ease. We crawled out from under the bed and immediately all three of us grimaced.

"Whoa, something stinks." Maurice said waving a hand in front of his face. Shaking a sock off his head.

Stink wasn't even a word that did this scent justice. This room smelled like something that was rotting and sickly crawled in and just lay down in a corner of the room and died. The room's condition matched the smell. Ronnie Coleman's bedroom was downright gross. Looking at this room I promised I would never complain about Brian's messy habits again. Clothes, pop tarts, toys, paper plates and cups, and papers were strewn all over the floor.

Posters covered almost every inch of his walls. In the bed in the middle of the wasteland of garbage and laundry, Ronnie Coleman lay sleeping a teddy bear and water gun held tight to his chest in a protective grip. It seemed fitting for him.

"Look at Ronnie Coleman, with his little teddy bear and his thumb. Oh this is priceless."

Maurice just spun around chuckling. He grabbed us pulling us downstairs into the kitchen. He wrenched open the fridge door catching it before it hit the wall and kneeled down to look at the contents of the fridge. I kneeled beside him while Brian did the same on Maurice's other side and we looked into the fridge.

I always liked examining a house when I visited because you can always tell a person's character through their home. A house is just a building but it's what lies inside the building that put's it apart from the house beside it. The Coleman's house didn't exactly fit under that theory. Their house didn't seem very…homey. It was very bland and not very decorated. There were no Knick-Knacks or statues or anything that would suggest some personalization. The walls were painted a dull white that almost looked gray in the lighting of the moon that were empty except for one family photo hanging on the wall.

It wasn't so dull that it seemed like a prison, just not my definition of what a homey house looked like. The fridge was on the verge of being empty. The only thing that I could see in the fridge was a pre-made lunch with Ronnie's name on it which included: a sandwich, an apple, and a jar of what looked like apple juice. The fridge also had a few pounds of meat, other random grocery items, and canned cat food hanging around in it.

Maurice began to dig through the fridge looking for something that would be useful to strike back at Ronnie.

"Ooh, what's this?" Maurice asked Ronnie's sandwich in hand.

"It's Ronnie's sandwich." Brian replied.

"Ronnie's sandwich?" Maurice asked repeating the question even though he clearly knew it was Ronnie's sandwich.

"Yeah." Brian replied once more.

Maurice unwrapped the plastic wrapping of the sandwich laughing and chuckling while he did so.

"What's in it?" Brian asked leaning closer.

"What is it?" Maurice asked almost the same time Brian did.

Maurice lifted the top piece and my hand flew to my face as the smell of tuna hit my nose.

"Uhhh, its tuna fish!" I said with disgust.

Maurice took a few loud sniffs making faces that you would associate with smelling something.

"Woo it stinks," Maurice looked down on one of the lower shelves and let out an excited gasp "cat food." Maurice offered holding up a can of the cat food.

"How are you gonna open it?"

Maurice just gave me a knowing smile and held the can up to his mouth. He sunk his sharp teeth into the aluminum of the can the can making a puncturing sound. Then his eyes rolled up and one eye twitched as the can magically rotated in his hand like a can would on an automatic can opener. The cans lid opened and Maurice looked down at it with a smirk. Brian laughed amazed and entertained.

"Does that answer your question?"

I just nodded dumbly. Maurice smiled and turned to Brian. Brian took apart the sandwich sloppily and Maurice threw the cat food carelessly on the sandwich the result being that the cat food scattered in the fridge everywhere.

"Perfect." Maurice exclaimed in a high squeaky voice accompanied by a high pitched chuckle.

Brian laughed along with him in that dumb high pitched voice.

"Put it back in the oven at 360 degrees."

"Wrap it nicely, wrap it nicely."

Brian's voice resembled a really bad Italian impression and Maurice was laughing excitedly. Maurice's laughter nearly made me break out in laughter because of how excited and filled with enjoyment it was. Most of them, because we were trying to stay quiet, were high pitched and came out almost as squeals. But I stayed quiet and watched the boys silently with observing eyes.

"Ready? Alright turn it face up. He'll never notice."

"Kay." Then Maurice eyes widened and he grabbed the jar of apple juice with an excited smile. He held it up to Brian then to me his chuckles almost becoming uncontrollable.

"What, its apple juice?" Brian said with a shrug.

Maurice unscrewed the cap and held it out too Brian. "Hold it."

He laughed then held it up into the air hesitantly pulling the bottle back slightly a couple of times. He took a breath and then took a water fall of the apple juice. I leaned back as Maurice spluttered on the apple juice barely swallowing any of it. Most of the apple juice ended up on his shirt, face, and the floor.

"Maurice you're drinking it? Maurice that's disgusting." Brian said grimacing and leaning away from Maurice.

Maurice let up the bottle now half empty and burped. He continued to do this until the entire bottle was empty.

"Good for you too." Brian exclaimed on Maurice's last burp.

Maurice laughed turning away from us but I could still see him from the side. He looked up at me suddenly and grabbed my head turning it the other way causing my hair to ruffle.

"Don't look!"

I stayed my head turned away from him flattening my hair with an annoyed face. Rubbing away the sparkles that stuck to my hands.

"Why what are you doing?" Brian asked looking at Maurice's back.

I heard the sound of a zipper being undone and my eyes widened as I realized what Maurice was doing. A whizzing sound resounded from Maurice's direction.

"All right! Maurice that's great! All right, yes!" he patted Maurice on the back praising Maurice. Maurice zipped his pants back up and turned around.

Maurice smiled widely gripping a now full jar of what deceivingly looked like apple juice. Brian handed he cap back to Maurice a smile now painted across his face of what now awaited Ronnie Coleman.

"Oh, ho, ho, yes!"

Maurice panting with excitement and amusement screwed the top back on and put the jar back into the fridge.

"Oh man," both the boys looked at me waiting for what I would say next "that is so mean." I said laughing.

Both of them grinned happy I saw the enjoyment in this horrid act too.

Maurice looked over at me and says "Ronnie's gonna be pissed."

"No kidding!" Brian replies as all three of us break out in uncontrollable laughter.

Maurice shut the fridge door and we ran to Ronnie's room and under his bed. As we fell/floated I almost could have sworn I heard Ronnie wake up gasping as if he had woken up from a nightmare. Maurice helped us up as we ran off in no direction in particular. We ran across an open little square of dirt road where two tire swings hung one higher by a foot than the other.

We ran up to the tire swing and Maurice stopped spun around Brian doing the same and they did a little handshake: a high five on each hand, forearm bump on each arm, then a head butt. When they had finished Maurice swung me over his shoulder me giggling like a maniac then put me down and ran into the tire swing on his belly. I followed hopping on top of the tire making us swing higher.

"I feel like I've been on vacation for a week!" Brian said swinging beside us.

"Me too!" I yelled happily still giggling like I was on laughing gas.

"Four buds!" Maurice exclaimed with a laugh.

Brian glanced at his watch his eyes widening. He scrambled out of the tire his voice in a panic.

"Oh no. Our dads getting up in ten minutes!"

"Whoa." Maurice climbed out of the tire falling to the ground. I carefully hopped of the swing stumbling a little on my landing but quickly recovering.

"Okay buds, I can't bear to see anybody go up there without…protection." Maurice said handing us each a pair of sunglasses he dug out from his vest.

"Thanks." I said with a gracious smile. They were blue rimmed while Brian's were red rimmed. I slipped them on and I was happy to find they were a perfect fit.

"Yeah, those UVs can be pretty dangerous if you know what I mean." Maurice said brushing his horns.

"Yeah sorry 'bout that." I said with an apologetic smile.

Maurice just waved me off with a soft smirk. "I got you two rascals back up to that horrible over world of yours. Visiting hours are over at dawn so unless you want a new residence or set of horns we better book buds. Okay?"

"Kay." I replied.

Maurice clasped our shoulders and we ran back towards home. It didn't take long to get there 1 minute and a half at the most. Maurice helped us in and when he was sure we were inside he made a move to leave.

"Wait!"

"What babe? I'm kinda running on a tight schedule here."

"I just wanted to thank you. I had fun tonight, more fun than I've had in a while. A-and I wanted to thank you for showing Bri a good time too."

Maurice grinned and ruffled my hair. "You're welcome kitty cat. Catch ya later."

Then he disappeared under the bed just as the sun shone through the blinds.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters or any of the characters, plot, or original ideas. I only own Christine.**

** A/N-Hope you like the story so far. **

Brian and I were totally exhausted during school. To the point where we were practically walking zombies wandering the halls from class to class. Not that I wasn't always drowsy with my sleeping insomnia but I had always gotten some sleep, no matter how brief it was. I hadn't had a wink of sleep in two days. I had come dangerously close to falling asleep in all of my classes and almost got caught by the teacher on more than one occasion.

The lunch bell revived me a bit and I found myself walking faster to get a table. Our school was one that layered its grades on floors. So elementary on the bottom, junior high in the middle, and high school at the top layer. Since I was only two years older than Brian I shared the same lunch period with him. Most of the eight graders avoided the younger 6th and 7th graders by sitting in the tables on the second floor opposed the ground floor tables. Once in while an eighth grader that was friends with a 7th or 6th grader and sit with them on the ground level but it was rare. I decided that I would sit with Brian today for the occasion. So, I waited patiently for Brian and when I spotted him walking toward the bleachers set up near the tables I hopped up off my chair and walked down the stairs and over to Brian.

I flopped down beside him and when he saw me he smiled. "Hey Chris."

"Hey Bri." Brian made a move to flip up his glasses but I grabbed his hand gently stopping him.

"You don't want to do that Bri."

"Why not."

"It burns like no tomorrow. I took them off earlier it burned so badly it felt like I had been looking directly into the sun for 5 minutes straight."

Hearing this Brian left the glasses where they were; perched high on the bridge of his nose. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kirsten, peeking around the corner. She smiled when she saw Brian who was looking off into space. I smiled.

"Hey what's with the glasses Rip Van Winkle?" Kirsten looked over at me.

"Hey Chris, you're wearing glasses too?"

"We had a late night."

"Helping him with his science project?" Kirsten said a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Actually, I never thought of it that way Kirsten," I said with a smile.

"Well mine's all finished."

"Good job," I replied.

"Great." Brian replied with subtle sarcasm lifting his glasses up with a sarcastic smile. I could tell he regretted this as he winced in pain and quickly put the glasses back on.

Kirsten just smiled with a nod of her head and started to eat her lunch.

"Look Chris here he comes." Brian said nudging my arm to get my attention.

Ronnie Coleman walked around the corner, his lunch sack hanging from his meaty hand. He pushed his way through to sit on one of the far benches from the bleachers. Brian and I watched closely with anticipation while Ronnie dumped his lunch onto the table. He unwrapped the wrapping off of the tampered sandwich before biting heartily into the center of the sandwich. Ronnie for a few moments seemed oblivious to the switch that had been made but after a few more chews his eyes widened.

He grabbed the jar and unscrewed the lid in a hurried frenzy and took a good gulp of the tainted liquid.

My mouth opened slowly in disgust, waiting for Ronnie to realize that what he thought was apple juice was really-

_Splat!_

Ronnie spit the contents of what had just a second ago been in his mouth, on the principle that had been making his daily rounds around the lunch tables. Ronnie's face was red with fury and embarrassment.

"Piss! Who put piss in my apple juice?!"

The whole lunch yard roared with a mixture of disgusted shouts and laughs. Kirsten was shouting "gross" at the top of her lungs while Brian was shouting in joy and victory over her shouts. He grabbed Kirsten and quickly hugged her then grabbed me and hugged me tightly. He held up his hand for a high five and I gave him one.

Brian was on a high the rest of the way home, talking about how great it was that the plan had all worked out.

"It was great Chris! I'm so glad you asked Maurice to take us to Coleman's house."

"I promised we'd get back at him, didn't I?"

"Yeah, and it was awesome!" I just laughed.

Eric and Todd walked home with us and informed us of the ruckus we'd caused. The entire school knew about the piss in the apple juice, and believe me they weren't sympathetic toward Ronnie. If it wasn't clear before I'll tell you now, nobody liked Ronnie Coleman. He was a bully, jerk, and just plain rude. So nobody really stood up for Ronnie, they really just laughed and snickered behind his back. Brian was absolutely beaming with happiness that this had worked beyond what he was aiming for. Not only did he enjoy Ronnie's embarrassment, but everyone else did too. I was so tired by that point that I could scarcely keep my eye lids opened and my feet moving let alone listen to the amazing success of the payback on Ronnie Coleman.

We went inside the house and threw our bags carelessly near the door where they landed with a thud. I was too tired to do any homework and even if I attempted too I'd probably do a really crappy job. I stumbled to the stairs and climbed upward up to my room. Brian looked up at me for a few seconds then walked into the kitchen, probably to make an after school snack.

I walked up the stairs to our attic bedroom then collapsed on my bed. Relief washed over my whole body and I sighed. I hadn't noticed how much my feet had been aching till now. I hadn't walked that much in a while, not since I quit my track team. _Why had I quit my track team? _I thought to myself while I kicked off my sneakers. Because it was the track team back home. True I had quit my track team a few months before the move but it was too much of a hassle for my parents to drive me across town to my events.

They never said anything about it, but I could hear them talking about it at night and if it was too much of a hassle I decided that I could live without it. So not a week after, I quit the team. My coach and mom were very upset. They couldn't understand why I had chosen to drop out. My dad seemed upset, but I could see he was relieved in a way. Sitting there on the bed I felt regret for dropping out of the team. I really loved track and most of my friends back home were on the team.

I think that's where I started to get more quiet and willing to go along with things to make everything easier for my parents. My mom had been worried, I guess, but she quickly accepted it and moved on like I did. I felt sort of ashamed for giving up something I enjoyed so much so easily, but I wasn't going to do it again. Maurice was coming again tonight and who knows what fun he had in store for us. With that positive thought I fell asleep.

I woke up to someone shaking me violently. For a second, I thought it was Maurice, but when I opened my eyes Brian was looking down at me impatiently.

"Come on Chris wake up!"

I groaned in protest but sat up feeling stiff and groggy. "Okay, hold your horses, I'm up."

"What's the big idea," I asked while I stretched.

"It's completely dark we can go now."

"Okay, okay let's go. Just give me a second."

I pushed myself off the bed and Brian went over to the bed. I grabbed a brush from my bag and a rubber band and put my hair up in a high ponytail then slipped on my sneakers. When I turned back Brian was gone and the bed was falling to the ground. I ran to the side of the bed and stared into the shadow uncertainly before reaching my hand out.

When my hand went through I retracted it and held it protectively to my chest. I examined my hand and when I saw it was normal I pushed the bed up wards holding it up on my back and then stuck both my hands through. I lost my balance from the weight of the bed and fell into the underworld. I was on the ground for only a few seconds before Maurice and Brian pulled me to my feet.

"What naturals. No hold bar, died in the wool, no assembling required, naturals." He head butted Brian and clasped a hand around my shoulders giving me a shake.

"What?" I asked looking at him confused.

"What, what do you think. Jeez I thought I was quick but you Scooby doo, you're already moving through the shadows." Maurice laughed and I just looked at him strangely.

"No I'm not."

"No you're not." Maurice said looking at me dumbly.

"You pulled us through...I think."

"Get outta town," Maurice said pushing my head back and making me annoyed and slightly dizzy "fine, fine, don't believe me. But I'm telling ya one thing kitty cat it was A LOT easier pulling you and Bri through tonight then it was last night."

While Maurice had been talking to us a red yarn haired monster with red skin and knitting needles sticking out of her head came and sat down behind Brian and started to knit. She looked up at him and started to giggle. Maurice let out a gasp and then his arms stretched out at least 10 feet and pulled down Brian's pants.

"Maurice, why'd you do that?" Brian asked looking down at his pants and Maurice's hands. Maurice let go of the pants and his hand's quickly retracted back and hit his face.

"Nice ass." My eyes widened from not only seeing Maurice's arms stretch impossibly wide but from also seeing my brothers pants pulled down for the sight of another girl who just told him he had a nice ass. Not exactly what I considered a normal way to start the night off.

Brian quickly pulled his pants back up and glared at Maurice.

"Good in twister too." Maurice ran off laughing while I just stood there blankly watching him clumsily run away.

Brian glared annoying after him and he grabbed my hand and pulled me along at a running pace after him. When we finally caught up with him Brian let go of my hand and marched up angrily to Maurice.

"Not even my mother sees me in my boxer shorts! Let alone my sister."

"You ever see them in theirs."

"Oh, eww, that's disgusting!" I said with a grimace of disgust.

Maurice just laughed. "Say Bri, don't you have any cheese in your life bud."

"Cheese? What kind?"

"Mademoiselles."

"What?" Brian asked even more confused than before.

"Squeeze, tomatoes, broads, chicks, girls. I said girls! Don't you have anyone else in your life besides your mother and your sister that wear the over the shoulder boulder holder."

"Ooh." I murmured to myself a little peeved. Maurice officially just said every word that describes women as just sex symbols in one shot, just dandy.

"You say something cat?" Maurice said looking up at me about two flights lower than me on the stair bridges we were crossing.

"Oh me, no I didn't say anything." I responded with a slightly sarcastic tone.

Maurice didn't seem to catch it and just shrugged it off.

"Do ya?" Maurice said returning his attention back to Brian.

Brian looked down at the floor biting his lip uncertainly. "Well…there is this one girl."

Maurice laughed and slapped Brian on the back. "Who is she?"

Brian looked up at me and I waved my hand ushering him to continue. "Her name is Kirsten and Chris and I go to school with her."

"Well, where does she live bud, I'll take you over there in a jiffy."

Brian told Maurice and he quickly ran us over to Kirsten's house. I was really uncomfortable about this. This was way different than before, it was one thing to do this kind of thing to a kid we didn't know, but to do this to Kirsten was another thing. This seemed really wrong, especially since there was going to be two dudes in the room. But I kept telling myself that we weren't doing anything wrong, this is what monsters did.

All three of us crawled up through the shadow into Kirsten's room. The boys were on either side of Kirsten's four poster bed while I crawled out the front. The bed lowered to the ground and we stood all looking at a sleeping Kirsten. A loud bark was heard and Brian looked around startled and concerned while Kirsten stirred slightly in her sleep. I had happened to be looking at Maurice and I realized that he had actually barked.

"I think your babe just barked. Ha-ha." Brian just gave a relieved and annoyed look before staring at Kirsten.

I smiled at Brian. He looked so cute when he was dazed and looking at his crush. I could tell that Kirsten liked him too. It was really adorable.

"So uh, what's this Kirsten dame like huh? Personally, I'm a, I'm a wart-and-mole kind of guy. Huh? Huh? Hey, I'm talking to you."

Maurice flicked his finger on Brian's head making him jump.

"Oh, well, she's pretty neat, but she's a girl. You know real smart, always knows the answer, and always raises her hand."

Maurice flicked his tongue out at Kirsten in the middle of Brian's description earning him a smack in the head from me. Maurice glared at me and I just gave him a stern look, before we went back to listening to Brian.

"Always has her homework done?" Maurice added.

"Exactly," Brian said.

Maurice face palmed.

"I amaze me! Okay kids, show time!"

Maurice sprung away from the bed to explore the room and Brian and I did the same. Brian and Maurice went the same direction while I took the opposite side of the room. There were plenty of things that could be wrecked that were probably collectable and expensive but I refused to do anything. I wandered around to cover up the fact I wasn't doing anything.

"I don't believe it," I turned to Brian to see him next to Kirsten's dresser picking up a picture with a happy smile "she likes me! I thought she hated me!"

Maurice came up behind Brian and looked at the picture before saying "why'd _anybody _hate you Bri? All you are is ugly. Ha-ha, hey Bri, Bri I want you to meet a couple friends of mine. This is Barbie and this is Midge, these chicks are so close to my heart," he said pointing to two Barbie's who were hanging out of his front vest pocket.

Maurice laughed and gently slapped Brian's face before turning around and trying on one of Kirsten's flowery hats just to be goofy. I giggled.

"No, it's just ever since we moved here I haven't really been able to make friends, and I never thought anybody really cared, least of all Kirsten."

I stopped smiling. "Yeah, seems like nobody cares for you at times," I said with a sad sigh.

Brian looks back at me with a small smile of understanding, and I walked over to his side.

"Brian, Chris, every-everybody cares. It's just that some people have a different way of showing it. Some people are more giving than other people, right?"

Maurice grabbed one of the black spots on his face and pulled making the skin of his face stretch with it. The spot came off and his face snapped back, he looked at it for a second then handed it to Brian.

"There you go bud, enjoy yourself." With that Maurice walked off, my eyes following after him.

"Thank you very much, I will keep this."

Looking at Maurice I felt a nudge, I tore myself away to look at Brian and he put the spot in my hand. I gave him a dirty look before looking at the spot and putting it in my pocket. Why? Because I wasn't going to throw it somewhere in Kirsten's room and the windows were locked.

"Hey, look at her flip book. Isn't this neat." I came to Brian's side and looked at the flipbook with him.

"You know I thought of this," he said looking at me proudly.

I smiled back at him but it wavered as I thought I heard the sound of ripping paper, chuckling, and pants from a dog. I almost turned around, but the loud thunder covered the sound of Maurice destroying Kirsten's homework, and he had already shoved the ripped and crumpled pieces of what was left of Kirsten's report back into her bag before I had turned around.

When I did turn around I saw Maurice wrecking the room. I ran to Maurice and grabbed his arm.

"Maurice, stop! Cut her a break!"

"I already did, I didn't paint on her wall," he retorted not even bothering to look at me.

I sighed. "Fine."

Soon her room was messed up but not that bad, maybe Maurice laid back a little because I asked him. I quickly brushed that aside, why would he listen to me? I, Maurice, and Brian fell back into the shadows. When we hit the ground we brushed ourselves off and began walking through the underworld again, I followed lazily behind the two friends who were having a conversation, when I saw a group of monster all huddled around something.

I looked back at Maurice, torn between staying with him, or to wander off over to the staircase, just to get a peek of what the other monsters were doing. Making my decision I snuck away over to the group of monsters. I hid behind a staircase peering between the gaps in the wood boards, trying to get a good look at what they were doing.

I never found out because before I could see a loud crash of wood on wood echoed through the staircases. The other monsters, terrified at what made the crashing sound, fled running to every escape route possible, screaming in fear. I hid with my back against the wall until all the monsters were gone, and made a move to get before I heard this: "Arnold, Arnold, Arnold."

The voice sent chills up my spine; it was unlike any voice I had ever heard. It was like icicles sharp and cold and it had a sense of foreboding in it. I would hate to be Arnold, heck I was still terrified even if I wasn't the one being called out. I sat there with conflicting emotions of wanting to run away back to Maurice, away from the voice, or look behind to see what kind of thing could possess a voice like that.

Instead of doing the sensible thing and run away I slowly pulled myself to my feet and peered cautiously through the wooden boards. When my eyes landed on the brute, I nearly stumbled backwards in shock and fear. I had never seen anybody as burly, muscly, and intimidating as the monster I saw. With beefy hands the size of baseball gloves, muscles on top of muscles, teeth so long that they protruded over his upper lip and so sharp they reminded me of a shark, and no neck just muscle, he easily took the prize for the scariest guy I have ever seen.

He was walking up to a monster that looked like he couldn't be more than 10 years old. The only evidence that he was a monster was the extra pair of hands permanently cupping the sides of his face, as well as the enlarged shoulders that must have been the arms of the hands hidden inside his coat.

Arnold was sitting with his back against the crate with nowhere to run. The monster walked up to him, puffing on a cigarette that hung limply out of his mouth, taking it out once in a while letting a big puff of smoke into the air.

The monster sat down beside Arnold. "You know, Boy gets what he wants. He asks you for a favor, you should take that as a complement."

"But I tried, you got believe me Snick I tried!"

I watched cautiously behind the staircase, taking in the scene word for word. So this meat head was Snick, well, I hoped that I would never see him again. Boy was the other name that caught my attention. It seemed liked Snick worked for Boy. If that was the case I didn't ever want to see boy. If he kept monsters like Snick as enforcers I didn't even want to imagine how gruesome he would be. Who was Boy anyway? I turned my attention back on the scene to find out.

"Oh you tried did you Arnold," Snick yelled beating the cigarette out with his hands and grabbing Arnold by the shoulders, roughly pulling Arnold closer to his face "well, you didn't try hard enough!"

"My knees they hurt," Arnold replied weakly.

"Oh, your knee's hurt, well, that's not all that's gonna hurt Arnold. You know why? Because I'm gonna take my big thumb and jab it in your eye."

He did just that. "Then I'm gonna take my finger and put it in the corner of your mouth and I'm gonna rip the corner of your mouth out!"

I watched in fear and pity as Snick pulled Arnold mouth roughly making his head shake.

"Ha-ha, that's good for a laugh isn't it? Huh?"

Oh, that laugh was horrible. It was downright sadistic. I thought of Maurice and my fear warmed a little bit just remembering his pure merry, carefree, laugh.

"You're scared of me aren't you Arnold" Oh, I like that," he said snapping his sharp teeth to scare Arnold more "But you know what I like even more than Arnold? I like taking my two…big…leather gloved hands, and grabbing our head and tearing it off!"

I nearly screamed in shocked horror as Arnold head flew up into a basket up over our head. I looked at Arnold whose hands were fisting and un-fisting trying to find his head, while snick cackled with pure amusement and joy of what he did.

"Hey, hey, Boy gets what he wants!" He yelled up to Arnold's head that was being whisked away in the basket.

Snick stood up and another basket which was filled with pumpkins with faces on them lowered down. He grabbed one of them and stuck it in Arnold's extra hands.

Arnold ran off while snick yelled after him, "Hey, remember, Boy always gets what he wants. Never, ever, ever, forget that! Ever!"

I had seen enough. I ran, basically for my life, far away from Snick. I ran in the direction that Maurice and Brian had gone and soon I heard Maurice's voice echoing off the staircases. I ran towards it and when I saw the boys I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and then quietly walked behind them as if I had never left.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters or any of the characters, plot, or ideas associated with it. All of it goes to their respectful owners.**

**A/N- This chapter will have alot of fluff in it. I didn't mean too but a little bit of fluffyness always sneakes past. Enjoy the chapter next one will be really soon.**

Maurice and Brian continued their conversation, having no knowledge of what I had seen and heard, or that I had been gone at all. I walked behind them still shaking from the mere memory of Snick. The more my mind flashed images of Snick ripping poor, poor Arnold's head off the more my fear grew. I was shaking violently now hugging myself as an attempt to stop my shaking. Nothing was registering in my head anymore all I saw was the huge shape of Snick cackling cruelly and manically. A hand touched my shoulder and I jumped three feet in the air and screamed.

Maurice was standing there with a hand stretched out towards me with a look of concern flashing across his features.

"Babe, are you alright? You're shaking like a leaf." He rested a comforting hand on my shoulder and waited for my answer. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brian was also staring at me with concern and confusion.

My mind was at a blank. I didn't know what to say other than the truth that was tearing at my insides.

I forced a reassuring smile to face and said "I'm fine I'm just cold that's all."

"Oh! Well then, you won't mind if I get a little closer to share my body heat, do ya?" Maurice said wrapping a blue arm around my shoulders and brought our sides together.

I gave him an un-amused look but I did nothing to pull away. He was warm, really warm actually. Feeling his warm body near mine and his arm wrapped around my shoulders, I felt safer. Snick stared to slowly fade away into the farthest recesses of my mind. My lack of resistance brought a conceited and suggestive grin to his blue face. This, I noted, looked a lot creepier with his pointed teeth than if another guy grinned that way.

Brian was sniggering to himself and I gave him a look as scary as Snick himself and he immediately stopped sniggering, but that didn't stop him from grinning. A loud resonating crash of a baseball bat on a ball, the sound of breaking glass quickly followed with cheers and shouts of excitement. Maurice's face lit with excitement and he pointed in the direction of the sound.

He reached out for Brian and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "Come on buds, you're gonna love this. This is great."

We ran over to a jagged fence, it was primarily made up of boards that were held in place by wiring. It looked like it was hastily thrown together at a last minute change in the construction plans. And it looked like it was made by kids, which, I guess is true. I looked through one of the boards and saw that what we heard was a baseball game. It was set up much like a baseball game. There were monsters sitting in a dugout on the side of the field waiting for their turn to swing, there was a crowd of monsters sitting in the very back on bleachers yelling and cheering with excitement while eating popcorn and various other junk foods, the field looked like any other baseball field except there were no bases. There were numerous outfielders but no monsters on the bases. Instead of doing runs it looked like they were just pitching the ball and hitting it with the bat. It was then that I noticed all the glass objects lying around the field. Anything that was fragile and easily broken was scattered around the field. Some were lying on tables, others were on the ground.

"How do you play this?" Brian asked eagerly.

At the same time the pitcher through a ball down home plate and the batter had a good hit on it, the ball went zooming straight towards us.

"Whoa," Maurice yelled before grabbing us and pulling us down, just avoiding the ball as it crashed into a china plate on a table set right in front of the gate, shattering it. Maurice stood up chuckling excitedly as he grabbed me and Brian and pulled us over to a big barrel filled with baseball gloves. He slipped one on and tossed one to Brian; he turned around to a second barrel and examined a few before picking one out.

He tossed me the glove and said, "Here, this one should fit."

I tried it on and it fit perfectly. Maurice stood in front of us clearing his throat for attention.

"Alright kids this is how it goes. We get the shit, we smash the shit, and then we put the shit back! It's called Monster ball! We do the bashin' and you get the thrashin'. Let's play ball!"

Maurice ran out on the field and Brian and I followed behind eagerly. We played along with the other monsters in the outfield. The point of this game was to let the ball smash into things or catch if it wasn't going to miss or just fly off into the underworld. We managed to shatter: a chandelier, a few porcelain figurines, a television, an aquarium, a few more plates, and a mirror; before, a big monster resembling a scarecrow came up to bat. The dog monster threw…I guess the F you ball, because the catcher flipped him off and the dog monster pitcher nodded. He threw the ball and the batter hit it without any effort. The ball went flying off into the distance leaving a trail of smoke as everyone watching on the field and in the bleachers stood up in awe.

"I got it!" I yelled running after the ball. I kept my eye trained on it, determined to grab this ball. I saw it hit the ground then roll under a staircase. I ran over to it kneeled down and grabbed the ball. I smiled at it and was about to turn around and make my way back to the field when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I jumped and screamed. I spun around to see Brian standing behind me. A stupid grin covered his face.

"What's wrong with you!? You scared me half to death!"

Brian smiled and laughed, "Maurice just told me to run out and make sure you were okay."

"One, don't ever scare me like that again. Two, why is Maurice so worried about me? This staircase is only a yard away."

Brian gave me a look that made me go red with embarrassment. "Oh, gosh no, he can't possibly-"

Brian kept laughing while my face only became redder. "Oh shut up Bri. Let's go Maurice is waiting for us."

"Wait, hold up a second. What's up there?" Brian asked, looking up at the staircase eagerly.

"Nothing good I'm sure, now come on lets go," I said persistently tugging on his arm.

"No way, I want to know what's up there."

"Brian, I mean it, let's go," I shouted, my patience wearing thin.

"You're just a big stick in the mud! You can stay down here but I'm going up there to check it out."

My blood was boiling. I wanted to leave him there so bad and just go back to Maurice and if something happened to him then he learned something. But I knew if I didn't go up there with him he was going to get in some major trouble and that little voice in my head wouldn't shut up. So, growling I ran up the staircase after him. The staircase was huge. The biggest one I had seen so far. It seemed to go up for miles straight into the raven black sky, and right at the very top was a little shack. The way it was built, with only a few boards nailed together that looked like spindley spider legs as it's support base, I had no doubt that it was magic holding the house up there. Brian was in front of me with a flashlight in his hand he pointed it at the stair in front of his foot to avoid tripping over it.

"If we die, I'm going to kill you."

Brian not bothering to turn around answered, "How would that even be possible if we both died? Oh, and I by the way, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist."

"Ooh, I'm gonna-" I spun Brian around to look him in the eye but before I could finish what I was about to say a roar filled my ears and huge arm swooped out of the darkness and grabbed me by the hood of my black jacket. Next thing I knew I was hanging off the edge of the staircase. I screamed for my life. The ground seemed impossibly far away. I couldn't even see it clearly we were so high up. If the hand holding me suddenly let go I was sure to die. I couldn't move my head to see who was holding me or see Brian; if I did I would have choked. Below me I faintly heard a voice telling me to hold on and I saw a small figure scurry passed below me.

I wasn't struggling; I was paralyzed with fear. I was scared that if I struggled that my attacker would become agitated and drop me. I was more scared than I had ever been in my entire life. I just hoped that Brian was safe. I also wished that someone would come and rescue me.

"She's the new kid, she's with me, and she's with me Snick!"

As soon as I heard Maurice's voice I felt a glimmer of hope. Maurice would get me out of this! But, when I heard him address the monster holding me I became extremely scared again. Snick! No! Anyone except Snick!

"Maurice, no one should ever, ever, ever, come this close to Boy's stairway!"

"Right, never get this close to boy's stairway!"

I couldn't see Maurice but I could hear slight worry in his voice. I heard a slight buzzing near my ear and Snick caught a fly before forcing it to my face.

"Hey doll, you want a fresh fly?"

"No! Get it away," I yelled slightly kicking my feet.

Snick just chuckled. I heard a slight crunch and I cringed with open mouthed disgust as I realized he ate the fly.

"I could break her pretty little neck Maurice, I could. I could also break the little twerp's neck."

"Let's drop her," Maurice said with forced laughter.

"No," that was Brian's voice he must have been standing near Maurice "He's just kidding."

"Snick, dead people have limited potential and I don't think Boy would like damaged goods. But, hey, it's your responsibility and you-"

"No, the doll and the kid are your responsibility Maurice!" Snick moved me away from the ledge and tossed me into Maurice arms. Maurice caught me and I held onto his shoulders.

"Right my…" he said pointing at my head.

"If you screw up, I'll drop you!" He said grabbing the back of his vest and lifting him a good foot in the air while I held onto him trying to pull him back to the ground. But thankfully it was only for a few seconds.

"That's fair. Let's go kids."

Maurice led us away from Snick back down the staircase. Brian moved in front of me and wrapped me in a hug which I returned. I rubbed my neck which was probably going to have a bruise or at least a mark on it tomorrow morning as Maurice rushed us down the stairs waving his arms frantically whispering "Go on! Go, go, go, go, go, go!" Once at the bottom Maurice sighed leaning on the pillar that held a statue.

"Damn it, Maurice, who was that?" Brian asked.

"Who Snick," Maurice asked pointing a clawed thumb up the staircase. Brian nodded. "Ah, he's all talk, just a big mouth. And ever since he developed that hump, he's been such a bitch."

I giggled a bit and he gave me a soft smile. But right after, quick as a flash, he leaned down pointing a finger at us seriously "But you two better learn to stay away from Snick and his staircase. Okay?"

"No kidding." Brian answered.

Maurice looked over at me and I must have looked like a puppy that had been abused and needed a hug because his face softened more than I've ever seen it soften before. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. I tensed at first but then I relaxed and returned the hug. I leaned against his chest for a few more seconds while he gently and lightly rubbed my back.

Maurice smiled and he placed his arms on my shoulders and held me out at an arm's length, "It's okay Chrissi. Just don't go sneaking there or anywhere Snick is around anymore okay."

"Okay." I said with a smile.

"Well, let's move it out buds."

He grabbed Brian and pulled us off back into the underworld. I followed him but not before looking back at the staircase one last time. I swore I saw a figure standing in the doorway of the little house at the top of the staircase, watching us run off as the doors slowly swung shut with a creak.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters or any of the characters or ideas. I only own Chris and any other random character I might make up.**

The following day of school was uneventful for me. I wish I could say the same for Brian. On the bus, I watched as he climbed on and sat beside me. But, he didn't say a word. That wasn't a good sign. Whenever Brian was quiet he was either very upset or very angry. A trait that he and I shared, the only difference is that I could make my sadness and anger look casual.

"Bri what's wrong?"

"Maurice wrecked Kirsten report." Brian said simply.

My face went dark. "What do you mean he wrecked the report?"

"He chewed it up. He destroyed it," Brian mumbled under his breath.

My eyes widened and everything turned a shade of red. Maurice was going to get it! After all that hard work she had done for that project. The days after school, the lunch times she took out to work on it. I even went out of my comfort zone and told Mr. Finn how good this project was going to be. And that…MONSTER went and ruined it!

When the bus came to our stop I stomped off the bus not even giving my routine thank you to the driver. I walked home boiling in my hot anger. I was going to need a good long session of screaming into a pillow to get over this. I walked in the door, closed it, tossed my bag somewhere in the front room, and ran up the stairs. I crash landed in my bed and screamed my head off into the pillow. I did that until my voice completely gave out. Then I just sat in bed, and when it got uncomfortable I lied down and closed my eyes.

When I woke up I was still angry. Which if that's happened to you isn't a good feeling to wake up with. You feel tensed and don't feel like you got any sleep at all, plus my face was twisted in an angry scowl while I was sleeping so now my face hurt. The light on my face was warm and welcoming but as I looked out the window I saw the hues of orange, pink, and yellow dancing across the clouds. Night was going to be soon and Maurice would probably be here as soon as the light was gone. I went to my drawers and pulled out a pair of slightly dirtied jeans with a few bleach stains from my first tries at trying to wash my own laundry, a red t-shirt, and my denim vest. I changed in the bathroom and went back into the room.

Brian was asleep at his worktable with his sunglasses on. I walked over and switched his lamp on then reclined in my bed. I looked at my watch; 8:01. Maurice would be here any minute. I rehearsed what I was going to say in my head, but I was uneasy. I wasn't going to be able to yell at him and I knew it. Well, I would yell at him but I didn't have the heart to tell him to leave. He was the first and only person other than Brian to see that I had been miserable. He had helped me come out of my shell and not be so uptight, he made me laugh, he took me on the most fun nights of my life, and he gave my brother a friend that he had desperately needed. How could I tell him to leave and never come back?

Then the lamp bulb shattered. I squeaked in surprise and Brian was startled awake. Maurice appeared out from under the bed laughing a slingshot made from a rubber band being stuffed back into his vest.

"Oh, hey, Bri, nothing to worry about, only a drill," Maurice said as he took Brian's hand drill and drilled the table while laughing at his own pun.

I smiled but I couldn't laugh.

"Hey pard, what's with the light something personal?"

"Yeah, you!"

"Me? Your only friend in the whole world. Ahh! Whoa window pane! Ha-ha." I slightly laughed, but Brian didn't.

"My used-to-be only friend in the whole wide world. You messed up Kirsten's homework."

"What? What did I do to the homework?"

"You chewed it up! You destroyed it! You know she got a zero on that because of you?!"

Maurice was shocked, he was stuttering as he replied, "Brian, I was hungry okay. And it just… It just so happened that at that moment I had a craving for a six-page paper on the daytime blooming of a nighttime cactus. And I'll tell you something else; I got incredible heartburn from that!"

"I mean, I can't believe you did that! I asked you not to and you went ahead and did it anyway!"

"Brian I happen to have a… Oh, huh?" Maurice squatted and pointed at Brian in a realization, then went real close to him.

"You like her don't you?"

"No I don't," Brian denied as he crossed his arms and looked away.

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Yes, you do," Maurice jumped up and down on Brian's bed and chanted, "Brian's got a girlfriend! Brian's got a girlfriend! Brian's got a girlfriend! Brian's got a girlfriend!"

"NO I DON'T!"

Maurice knowing he had Brian riled up stopped jumping and leaned in close to his face and said, "Would it help the boo-boo if I said I was sorry, huh?"

"Look, just go back to your dumb underworld and leave Chris, Eric, and I alone!"

I could tell that that the words stung. He slowly backed away off the bed. He spun around one like he wasn't sure he had heard the words right. The lights came on and dad was standing on the stairway his head poking through the bars of the stairwell. Maurice immediately turned to close, and I turned away from the stairwell hoping they would think I had been asleep this whole time.

"Dad, what is it?"

"Hey Bri. Is your sister awake?"

I waited for Brian to answer.

"No she's sleeping."

"Alright then come down stairs your mother and I want to talk to the three of you, but we can tell Chris tomorrow."

Brian climbed out of bed and went over to dad.

"You want a ride?"

"Sure daddy."

I heard them walk down the stairs and when I heard the door shut I hopped out of bed. I looked down at Maurice and he was lying completely motionless. I went over to the light switch until I heard the conversation. I went over to the wall and pressed my ear against it.

"We wanted to talk to the three of you because; well, your mother and I have come to a decision and it uh… it affects all of us."

"We think that you're grown up enough to understand."

"Your mom and I have decided that were not going to live together for a while."

My body went numb. I stumbled away from the wall like it was on fire. It had to be a bad dream, I had done everything to make sure that they wouldn't have stress and they would get along. I got great grades; I never got into any trouble. This was what I had feared for a long time, why I tried to be a perfect angel, why I never had any friends. Friends and fun were a distraction and I didn't want them to worry if I went over to a friend's house or went somewhere with a friend. But no matter how hard I had tried they were still splitting up.

I sat on the ground for about a minute without a sound. Then I erupted into sobs. I realized that all that effort wasn't worth it and had been stupid, naive and I should have known better. I didn't have any friends and they were still splitting up. What was I going to do; I was so used to being withdrawn that I didn't know how I was going to become social. My sleeping insomnia was probably going to get even worse since the source of my nightmares had come true. This whole day had just fallen apart.

I stood up and plopped down on Brian's bed my flailing arm had hit the light switch and the room went dark.

Maurice stood there his form silhouetted by the moonlight. He stood there for a second before awkwardly coming to sit next to me. His mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water. When words didn't come to him he just wrapped an arm around my shoulder giving it a comforting squeeze. I abandoned all my insecurities and wrapped my arms around Maurice's neck and buried my face into his chest. I had never needed comfort as much as I did then.

I must have taken Maurice by complete surprise because he tensed up completely. But slowly he wrapped his arms around me. Even slower he gently lifted a hand and put it on my back and begun to gently rub in small circles with a gently pat every now and again. He didn't say a word just held me as I cried. When I heard Brian coming up the stairs I quickly moved out of Maurice's embrace and wiped my tears away with my vest. Maurice sat there with his arms still slightly outstretched but he lowered them when Brian came up the stairs.

Brian looked up at me with a blank face of sadness. I tried to smile but I just couldn't manage it. He looked over Maurice stopping to look at his chest and then to me before walking over and sitting next to Maurice on the far left side of the bed. I realized I must have left a wet stain on Maurice's shirt.

"I heard it all." Was all Maurice could say.

"Yeah, it sucks huh?"

"Yup. It's not too good," Maurice looked down at his shoe examining it even though there was nothing there to examine.

Everyone was quiet, except for me sniffling and drying my eyes. Brian was looking at me, I could feel it. I could tell he was thinking as he looked away.

I could hear the venom in his voice as he said, "I hate them."

"No you don't," Maurice said firmly.

"No you don't. At least you have a family."

I looked up at him with wide eyes. He looked at me and I could say that I have never seen him that vulnerable. He had probably never told anyone that he didn't have a family. Or shown that he missed having one, the other monsters would probably have made fun of him. He quickly looked away from me and off into the darkness of the room.

"Believe it or not, you and Chris are the only real friends I have."

Brian looked up at Maurice as I did just a few seconds ago and Maurice looked back.

"Why do you think I keep coming back? If I didn't like you two I'd have your parents blaming ya for the shooting of Abe Lincoln," Maurice said with a weak chuckle.

He looked at the two of us before saying, "Come on down, it'll cheer you two up. Come on."

"I don't really feel like being cheery," Brian said with a shrug.

I nodded in agreement.

"Oh, Bri, Chrissi, pranks, snacks, games," he said jumping on the bed behind us.

He laid a hand on my shoulder, "It'll take away the hurt, come on." He gave Brian a pat on the back.

"I know what we can do. We can go see Kirsten. We'll bring her flowers."

I could see Brian smiling at the idea.

"Oh! I've got a great idea. We'll go to Ronnie Coleman's and loosen all the bolts on his furniture. What do you say huh? Or we could go sight-seeing, go to Paris or Greece," I had no idea how he knew I liked to travel but the idea of going to Paris and Greece made me smile, "It's quick and good for your bones cross my heart and hope to die. Come on."

I looked over at Brian and he was smiling. Somehow a smile found its way to my face.

"Huh? Huh? Huh," Maurice persisted as he nudged our arms.

"Okay."

"Alright!"

Brian and Maurice climbed to the other side of the bed. I stayed where I was. I could hear them doing the handshake and I smiled. At least Brian would have some fun.

"Aren't you coming Chris?" Brian asked.

I answered, "What's the point? It's not going to fix anything. It's only going to help push the problem away. I've been running from it since I knew that they were having problem in their relationship. I'm tired of running. I just want to be alone tonight and accept it so I can finally get over being perfect for them and suffering sleeping problems and social problems because of it okay."

I didn't have to turn around to feel Maurice's annoyance with me. Maurice walked over to me grabbed my shoulders and pulled me to my feet.

"Now you listen to me cat, what sitting here going to prove. You'll just be as alone as you were before. With me and Brian you have fun! Why would you want to sit here all alone with all the fun that's going on down there? Get over it with Bri; let a little fun wash the hurt away. Come with us."

He tugged at my arm persistently. I looked over at Brian. He was smiling reassuringly. I smiled the biggest smile I think I had ever made in my entire life.

"Alright let's go!" I yanked Maurice to the bed, making him stumble.

He lifted the bed with a, "Ladies first."

I smiled and jumped in with a flip. I floated to the ground head first and soon Maurice and Brian were floating next to me. Maurice was also floating head first while Brian was floating feet first.

Maurice faced me floating through the air in a swim like manner and he gave me a goofy grin. I laughed and did little twirls through the air.

"You alright bud's?"

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Never been better."

"Hey where's the party," Maurice shouted out to the monsters scurrying past below us.

"Night-night out at the Crossburgs."

Maurice chuckled and fist pumped the air. Once on the ground we followed the other monsters to a staircase where a huge line of monsters were standing. Maurice moved us to the front of the line pushing and saying things like 'new guys' and 'move out' and things of that nature. I was excited to scare somebody tonight. I needed the adrenaline but when I peeked my head out from under the bed something felt wrong.

The room was way to clean and…empty to be a kid's room. I crawled out from under the bed but I soon realized as I stood in the room that it wasn't a bed at all. It was a crib. And the room was a nursery. All the monsters had gathered here to scare a baby.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way shape or form. I only own Christine.**

Maurice came out from under the bed with Brian and I half expected him to look at the crib and then laugh at his own mistake and then take us to the real room. But when he stood next to me he looked just as excited as the other times we had come out from under the beds to scare kids.

"Were here, Brian, Chrissi babe, I'd like you to meet a couple friends of mine this is Sherry, Debbie, Pumpkin, Bernie. This is great, well, let's do it guys. This is fun! Scare the hell out of her guy's. Go ahead taunt her, make her poop her pampers, make her dirty her diapers, make her caca her crib. Watch this guy's their great! Go ahead buds."

I stood there for a second silent. I waved for Maurice to come closer and he leaned in with a grin on his face.

"Maurice it's just a baby."

He lolled his head. "Baby, baby, baby, it's our duty sweetheart! This is a character-builder. Come on, taunt her, and scare the hell out of her. Watch this guy's. Watch this. Go, go scare the hell out of her," Maurice laughed while he pushed me and Brian to the edge of the crib leaning our faces inside.

Brian looked at me. Not knowing what else to do I leaned in real close to the baby my face a few inches away. The other monsters leaned in eagerly and Maurice stood back chuckling with a proud look on his face.

"Boo?"

All the monsters leaned back with a disappointed sigh. Maurice's shoulders slumped.

"Boo?" Maurice asked in a tone that suggested he thought he may have heard wrong.

"Boo," Brian repeated.

"What are you the boo fairies?!"

The other monsters it seemed forgot about us and began scaring the baby. The monster from earlier on the monster ball field, the one that looked like a scarecrow, his head split in half revealing an empty space that made me cringe while he did a dark laugh. Maurice chuckled; Brian and I didn't. The baby began to whimper.

"Stop it," Brian said.

Another monster turn into a bug looking thing and went right into the babies face. The baby began to cry while the other monsters laughed.

"Come on, STOP IT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs and the music that I hadn't noticed till now stopped and everything went quiet.

I glared at Maurice and he looked back at me annoyance and a bit of sadness.

"Baby, relax okay."

"Maurice, this is just cruel." I walked past him and he stuttered in disbelief and followed me with his eyes.

Brian came to my side and I tried the light switch but it wouldn't turn on. Brian opened the door with him behind it and the light that came out hit my arm and it disappeared completely into my short sleeve shirt. I screamed along with another female monster that screamed light.

"Brian! Chris!" Maurice yelled distraught. The door flew open as Brian stared at my arm shocked and all the monsters in the room turned into clothes including Maurice. I jumped into the shadows of the room and looked horrifyingly at my arm as it materialized again. I felt a light thumping at my leg and looked down at Maurice. His arms or sleeves in this case were flapping against my legs desperately but I didn't notice them. I was too busy looking at my arm. Remembering Maurice I gave a sad apologetic look to the pile of clothes that were Maurice and the sleeves went still.

Brian jumping into action grabbed me and using himself as a shield led me through the hall. But we soon learned that Brian was also affected so we ran as fast as we could through the house. When we made it outside into the tranquil yard I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked up at the lighted nursery window and I felt my heart sink to my stomach. Brian and I walked home, two figures silhouetted by the early morning moonlight. On the way back we went by Todd's. When passing the tall oak tree in his yard a screaming Todd wrapped in a sleeping bag fell from the small platform built on one of the sturdy branches. Brian and I ran over to him to make sure he wasn't seriously hurt.

"Todd you okay," Brian asked.

Unfortunately Todd had been carrying a flashlight that was turned on and when it pointed to Brian's arm it disappeared.

"Brian!"

Brian held onto his arm…sleeve…whatever and we made a run for it. We ran up to the house went in through the back door and quietly went back up to our room. Inside we collapsed to the floor. Something was terribly wrong, only monsters were supposed to turn into clothes when hit by light, only monsters were supposed to be able to go into shadows without help, only monsters got enjoyment out of pain. At least we didn't fall into the last category.

I had a feeling and not a good one. But I needed records to confirm it. I carefully went out into the hall staying on guard in case there were any lights on. Thankfully there was none and I made it to the extra room that would soon be mine. We were using it for storage right now; lots of boxes were piled up in there. But I was looking for a particular one. I searched through them before finally finding the right one. I wrenched the top off and picked out two books from inside. I carelessly tossed the top back on and ran for our room grabbing a scale from the bathroom on the way.

Inside our room I opened our picture books on Brian's worktable with the Christmas lights dimly glowing. I could see easily in the dark; just another new ability that made that gut wrenching feeling worse. I flipped through the many pictures of me and Brian that our mom had taken for keepsake before I found the pages I had been looking for. They were measurements of our heights from every year up until the current one. I found this year measurements on Brian's then grabbed a pencil and pulled Brian over to the big ruler hanging on the wall.

The measurement recorded just 3 months ago said 56 ½ inches. I stood Brian up against the ruler and put the pencil against the top of his head. When I had the pencil on the ruler Brian moved to look at it.

If anything Brian should have grown in the three months since he had been measured but the measurement that I got was 54 ½ inches. I quickly ran to my picture book. The measurement for this year was 67 inches. I stood myself up to the ruler and did the same thing I had with Brian. When I pulled away I saw 57 inches. We were shrinking!

I ran to the scale hoping I would be the same 140 I always was. I was 120. I pulled Brian onto the scale; 83. We definitely were shrinking. With all the other weird stuff going on it could only point to one thing. We were turning into monsters.

Brian and I talked about it and he realized the same as I did. So with a heavy heart I suggested what we should do. We had to stop going to the underworld. I realized Maurice was going to come back though and I knew I wasn't going to be able to resist him and niether would Brian. So we decided that we had to stop him. So the next day me and Brian took the saw from the garage and sawed the legs off all the beds. Dad had left earlier this morning leaving a note for me, hadn't even said goodbye. It made me extremely sad but I knew it was for the better now.

Everything would get better. Eric went to school that day very sad. Before he had left I gave him a hug told him I loved him and walked him to the bus. Mom gave me a hug and a kiss when I came home and I knew I needed to tell her. I told her about my social problems and my sleeping insomnia and she had been completely shocked and worried. She told me that she would make sure that she would try to eliminate any stress she could and she told me that I didn't ahve to act for hr anymore, that she was happy just the way I was. she also said I should take melatonin before bed. On my way back up to my room I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Things had definitely changed for the better.

Despite how everything seemed to fall into place I still felt sad and sitting in front of my bed sawing the legs off I knew why. I didn't need help anymore; my mother and brothers would help me. I still wanted Maurice to stay. I couldn't get rid of this nagging feeling of sadness, guilt, and worry. I wondered if Maurice made it back in the underworld before sunset. If he hadn't I'd never forgive myself. This feeling was starting to annoy me, I'd never felt this way before. The more I thought about Maurice and how he was MONSTER who snuck into people's house's I'd always interject a 'but' into my thoughts with a quality that I really enjoyed about him. Why did I want to defend him so?

It didn't matter anyway; he wasn't going to be able to come back. With the last leg of my bed sawed off so did my expectation of ever seeing Maurice again. For some reason I felt like a piece of my happiness had broken off with the leg of my bed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way, shape, or form. I only own Christine.**

**A/N- I added a picture of what Christine would look like as the cover to the story. I now her eyes are red it was a mistake while I was coloring. I had thought I was holding jade guess I was wrong. But that is how she is supposed to look just less cartoonish.**

**Third-person point of view-**

Maurice backed away with fast stumbling steps, his face twisted into an expression of horror, as Snick loomed ever closer. Snick was pissed off. They had been so close! The little twerps were almost one of them completely and Maurice lost them! He was utterly useless!

"Just give me a second I- oh."

"We almost had them! They were becoming one of us," Snick growled in annoyance and anger punching his fist into a nearby cake and throwing a chunk at Maurice angrily. Maurice raised his hands up in defense preventing the cake from hitting his face. He took fast, stiff, frightened steps into the food table and jumped to the other side to keep something in between him and Snick "They know our secrets Maurice!"

"Nobody's gonna believe em'. They're harmless! I'll tell ya. Let's just leave them alone. We'll just leave them alone and-and-and."

"You just don't get it Maurice. Sometimes Boy gets a little lonely. He wanted to play with them."

"Why doesn't he just play with himself?"

"Why doesn't Boy play with himself," Snick asked chuckling.

Maurice realizing his own joke began to laugh. Snick with his anger gone from boiling to boiling over crushed the glass bottle of red juice that had been resting comfortably in his meaty hand. The contents splattered over the table, Maurice's left arm, and Snick's arm; meanwhile, the glass laid on the table and floor. Snick immediately after crushing the bottle grabbed Maurice by the vest pulling his torso over the table.

"Hey, look, don't get me upset Snick. You know what happens when I get upset."

Snick shook him roughly.

"Y-you know what happens when I get upset."

Snick shook him again.

"_That's it._ I'm upset."

As soon as the words left Maurice's mouth a creature sprung from his head and flopped around like a fish out of water making a strange skeaking noise. Then it quickly retreated back into his skull. Maurice shook his head an attempt to get rid of the dizzy and strange feeling from his head. Snick with one hand took the dangling cigarette out of his mouth.

Smoke billowed out of his mouth into the air as he said, "What the hell is that!"

"I don't know that what happens when I get upset," Maurice replied.

Snick stuck the cigarette between his lips and roared in anger. He pulled Maurice over the table. Maurice struggled and choked as his vest squeezed his neck painfully. Finally as Snick held him up with one hand the other hand giving attention to the cigarette some air was sucked back into his lungs. But his feet were still a few inches off the ground and that was just with one of Snick's hands!

Taking a quick puff on the cigarette Snick asked, "You know something?"

Maurice tried to answer but all that came out was stuttering no's and garbled words. Snick didn't let him finish anyway.

"I don't like you Maurice. You're always trying to be so funny. Well, I got a riddle for you."

"O-okay."

"What happens when Boy doesn't get what he wants?"

"I-I don't know Snick. I've got a hunch."

Snick blew smoke directly into Maurice's face and Maurice coughed.

"Hunch? Is that _my _hunch you're talking about Maurice?"

Maurice realizing his mistake, tried to fix it.

"Oh no, I take it back."

"BACK! HUNCHBACK!"

Maurice's eyes widened in shocked fear. Snick's hands tightened on his vest and through him to the ground. He tried struggling but Snick was much stronger and kept him place.

"You bring _two_ kids in here! You tell them our secrets! And you can't even manage to get one of em'?!

A loud snap resounded through the small room and Maurice yelped in pain.

"My horn!"

Maurice waved his feet and arms around making noises of pain.

"If you can't get em' _I_ will."

"Don't hurt em'! They're not worth anything hurt."

"Ahh, I think you've grown a soft spot for them or _her!"_

"_NO!"_

"Either way Maurice, you shouldn't have lost em'."

Maurice whole life flashed before his eyes as Snick's giant hand lowered down to his face. His beating wasn't pretty by the end of it he had a large cut on his head, his right eye was badly bruised and swelled, and even though you couldn't see them under his clothes he had tons of bruises over his body. If he wasn't blue already he was now. When Snick was satisfied with the damage he carried Maurice by his vest choking him some more up to Boy's room.

He went through the building and when he came to a small door he opened it; threw Maurice into it then shut it with a laugh. Maurice laid there in the stuffed animals letting his body sink in the quicksand of stuffed toys. He couldn't remember a time when he felt guiltier. This was all wrong it wasn't supposed to be like this. He was just supposed to get the kids, get them to come down, then give em' to Boy. It wasn't like he could say no to Boy; he would be thrown into the over world and turned into clothes in a heartbeat. But from the start he was doomed. He had broken the only rule don't get emotionally involved with the victim…ever.

Then again how could he not? They were great kids. Plus, somewhere in the farthest recces of his mind he could slightly remember his human self. He remembered being a very lonely child. He didn't have many friends and his parents ignored him a lot. Brian and Chris reminded him of his old self and he didn't want them to be the way he was when he was human. Poor Chris was even worse off than Brian, what with being the oldest and all. She had a lot of problems, she had to watch over her younger brothers, sleeping problems, parents who aren't around enough, no social life; she had the whole package.

When Maurice was given the mission he knew right away that it wouldn't be all that difficult to get Brian to go with him. But Chris, she was a different story. With no play and friends and only work and wanting to be the perfect child Maurice knew that she would focus on the safety of her little brother. But at the same time he felt…sorry, empathized with her. She was even lonelier and alone than he had been. At least she had her brothers; Brian and Eric would always be there for her.

When he saw her he knew that his work was cut out for him. In that moment he chose not only to get her to come down with him but to make sure that she would branch out and learn that she didn't have to prove anything to her parents. Of course he did this in the only way he knew, how making other kid's lives hell; but, he could slowly see her emerging from her cocoon. When he saw the real her, what a child of her age _should_ look like, for the first time he felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness and pride. At least he had helped one or two people while he was a monster.

He found himself liking Chris more and more and he liked Brian a lot to. Brian was really a bud to him now. So was Chris but it felt different somehow in a way he couldn't explain. Now he was hoping that Snick wouldn't hurt em'. He didn't think he would ever be the same if either one of them got hurt. He worried for Chris especially. Yeah she was definitely getting better. He grabbed her info card and saw that all her problems were almost gone but Maurice knew she was still fragile. She still was emotionally sensitive, her father had just left and…if something happened to her brothers she would be hurt almost beyond fixing. He just kept hoping that Snick wouldn't hurt them. There was nothing he could do to help them now.

Back at the Stephenson residence things were taking a turn for the worst. The fold up bed in the couch that sat in the living room starting to unfold of its own accord. Not only that the pillows and cushions were flung to the side as if by a ghost. As the metal legs hit the floor a high pitched chuckle bounced through the room.

Chris eyes flew open and she sat up in bed. She looked at the time 1:00. She listened intently to the house but the only sound that reached her ears was the wind whistling against the window. Just to make sure there wasn't anything in the house she crept down the stairs to check on Eric. She got to his door and gently opened it a smidge and peered inside. When she saw Eric sleeping peacefully in the bed with nothing else in the room she swung the door leaving it open and turned around to go back upstairs.

Before she could a giant arm grabbed her body making her arms useless. She tried to scream but a sock was stuffed into her mouth before she could. She struggled with all her might but there was no way she could get free. When her attacker went for Eric's room she struggled harder. She managed to kick his thigh and a grunt was her reward.

"Shut up before I knock your lights out."

Chris stopped. Snick! It wasn't possible. She and Brian had sawed off all the legs of all the beds. The only way he could have gotten in was…the fold out couch. She shut her eyes in misery. How could she have forgotten the pull out couch?! Snick stomped over to the bed no longer caring if he was quiet or not and grabbed Eric out of his bed by his shirt. He looked first at his already captured sister than at Snick. Then he screamed. Snick just managed to grab, gag him, and get under the bed before Holly came into the room, just barely missing the kidnapper of her two children.

Chris had a hard time remembering what happened after that. She faintly remembered Snick bonking Eric's head against her head and becoming dizzy. She barely remembered the trip up the stairs to Boy's room but once they were there she snapped out of it quick. When she focused she was in a chair and Eric was nowhere to be seen. She stood up in her chair and took a few steps to start her look for Eric but a figure stepped out on the platform that ended at the top of the small staircase at the end of the room. Chris stopped and slowly turned to fully face the figure.

The figure at the staircase was a boy. He was dressed in a boarding school uniform with knee high stockings, and dress shoes, almost like the one's Todd wore except much older. Chris was dumbfounded. This was the infamous Boy. The same Boy who had the underworld wrapped around his little finger. It almost made her laugh. Almost. There was this eerie quality about Boy, it was clear he couldn't be more than nine or ten years old; but, he had an air of authority and maturity that was almost disturbing.

"Chris, welcome. It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"Where's Eric?"

"He's fine I assure you. Would you like something?"

Chris was exasperated. He kidnapps her and now is offering her something like she was a guest?

"Yeah, I want Eric and I want to go home and for you to leave us alone!"

"Why on earth would you want to go back home? There is no one other than Brian who cares for you up there. You have people who care for you here."

"The only one who remotely cares for me is Maurice. But, I have family who loves me and would be worried sick if I stayed here!"

Boy continued as if he hadn't heard the last comment.

"If you stay here you can be whoever you want to be. You have no one to prove yourself to. You have people you will accept you for who you are here."

Chris could feel herself wavering but when she remembered that he stole her and Eric she turned cold. The only one who cared for her was Maurice. Boy didn't care he just wanted Brian…right?

"Why did you kidnap me Boy?"

"Wants to get right to the point. I like that. I have brought you here because I have been yearning for a companion. It gets quite lonely here and Snick isn't sufficient company."

"Why did you take Eric?"

"I had meant to lure you and Brian at the same time but you can put together what happened. I do apologize if Snick was too rough with you."

"Don't sweat it," Chris replied sarcastically "Why the two of us? I get Brian but why me?"

Boy walked down the step towards her. Up close she could see that he was very pale and the palms of his hands had rotted away showing tissue that looked like silly putty.

"You are really a lovely little thing," boy observed touching strands of hair that fell around her face "So smart and strong willed as well. I haven't had the presence of a female in quite a long time. I also yearn for comfort."

He played with her hair some more before continuing, "If you stay you can rule this world by my side with Brian, Maurice will be here, to show you how to get used to the new appearance. The overall reaction to the monster transformation tends to be shock."

"There will be no need for that. I'm not staying and becoming a monster and neither is my brother. Let Eric and I go!"

Boy's smile faded into a thin line.

"Why such cold behavior. You are a very lonely person aren't you Chris? You want someone who will show you all the attention and caring that you yearn for and need. I will never turn you away I will never betray or abandon you."

Even though she was scared she could see he was lying through his teeth.

"You are full of shit. You'll toss me away the moment that I'm no longer amusing to you. Like a toy!"

"You presume much. I assure you that if you stay you and Brian will always be looked after with care and will never be tossed aside or looked over."

His smile held sincerity but Chris could hear in his voice that he was becoming increasingly impatient with her. He was just trying to lure her into his web but this fly knew better than to listen to this spider.

"You also presume much. Let me make this as clear as I can since I guess it wasn't clear enough before. I. Am. Not. Going. To. Stay. Here! Never!"

Boy's face darkened and she could see his fist clenching into fist. But his face still wore that pleasant smile.

"Very well. I think I'll send you to your room to think on things. I'm sure that Brian will come to his senses and agree and then so will you. Snick! Escort our guest to her room and don't be rough."

Snick grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs and over to an open trapdoor. He lifted her up and dropped her into the trapdoor screaming.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer- I don't own little monsters in any way. I only own Chris.**

Chris was still for a few second's letting the tingling shock flow through her limbs and then flow out. She slowly sat up still shaking from the fall and looked around. It was a small octangular room that decended up into a dark ceiling. All she could see was a few metal baseball bats, an old phone, stuffed animals, and a door. She crawled over to it and yanked on it a few times, when it didn't budge she kicked it a few times. When she knew that the door wasn't going to budge she fell defeated into the stuffed animals.

Maurice heard the banging and crawled up through the stuffed animals to see who it was. Chris could feel her weight shift and she realized something was coming from beneath the pile. She quickly grabbed the nearest bat to her and prepared herself. A stuffed animal slowly rose up and she was about to swing until she saw a familiar Mohawk and Horns.

"MAURI-" Chris stopped mid-sentence when she saw how badly he was hurt. He had a really bad black eye, a gash on his head, and a piece of horn was dangling on the edge of where it had been snapped, just barely hanging on.

"Maurice, what happened? You're a mess."

She jumped over to him and sat in front of him touching the wounds with feather like touches making him gasp and flinch. He wasn't used to this kind of concern or worry; it made him feel shy and awkward.

"Did _Snick_ do this to you…because of me and Brian?"

Maurice didn't answer but he turned his head away from her. Chris felt sadness and guilt well up inside her chest and stomach, and tears burned her eyes. Maurice was hurt because of her.

"Oh, Maurice, I-I am so sorry," Chris cried as she flung her arms around him and embraced him warmly.

Maurice froze; he hadn't got a pure hug like this in more than a hundred years. He felt his pulse start to race, and his muscles start to warm as his awkward levels rose. But after a few seconds he felt a comforting warmth come over him and the concern that embarrassed him before now made him feel wanted and cared about. He slowly and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. He held her unsurely but after she snuggled into his chest he held her tightly to him. This was different from when he had held her at her place, this wasn't just about comfort. She cared for him enough that she apologized for something she had no control over. It made his monster heart beat a little faster.

"There's nothing to be sorry about Chrissi."

Chris pulled back to look at the extent of his injuries closer. She seemed to remember something as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a very, very, small first aid kit. Maurice looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"In case of emergency, if I ever fall out of bed and break a bone I want to be prepared."

She opened the box and took out a small brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a small rag she opened the bottle and poured the contents on the rag. She leaned up to Maurice and he leaned back.

"What's on that rag Chris?!"

"Just stay still!"

She pressed it to the cut and he hissed. If anyone else had been right next to his face they would have run away screaming at his bared sharp teeth. But Chris wasn't, she knew she wasn't in any danger with Maurice. She completely trusted Maurice. She had put together that he had tried to seduce them into becoming monsters with the fun and freedom of the underworld. But she knew that it was because Snick and Boy forced him to. She still felt a twinge of hurt from it but she understood where he was coming from. She was terrified of Snick; she probably would have done the same.

Maurice's face slowly relaxed as the stinging faded and she took out a little sticker and gauze and taped it onto his head. She looked at his black eye then went back to the kit. She pulled out a bottle of frozen water and a new rag. She wrapped the water bottle in the rage then held it up to Maurice's eye and gently added pressure.

"Hold that to your eye okay."

"Okay."

"There's not much I can do for your horn. I could tie it on if you want. Do your horns grow back?"

"No. You can just tie it babe."

"Okay then."

Chris took out some wrap and gently wrapped the piece of horn back on the rest of the horn. When it was tightly bound she took the clip and secured it into place.

"That should do it."

"Thanks babe."

"You're welcome Maurice; it was the least I could do."

Maurice took the bottle covered rag off his eye and smiled. Chris returned a meager smile. The room was still and silent the two friends soaking in the silence. Maurice felt as if he should say something but no words came to his mind. Chris turned to him the awkward silence becoming too much to take and saw the confliction on his face. She laid a hand over his much larger hand and he turned to her.

"Maurice, I'm sorry that you got beaten up. But, Brian and I can't be monsters."

Maurice squeezed her hand gently enjoying the warmth of her small hand in his.

"Babe, I understand. Being a monster aint all it's cracked up to be. Including getting that flesh faced brat whatever he wants or getting fried. You can't go to the over world, you can never see your family again, you live forever and your friends and family…don't."

"Maurice…what was it like when you were human?"

Maurice squeezed his eyes tight in thought trying to gather any solid memories from over 200 years ago.

"There were lots of horses; carriages too, no cars or skateboards, or buses. The girls wore these huge dresses and didn't really say much. The guys wore these heavy suits with frilly sissy stuff on it."

"Wow that was a long time ago, like the 1700's. Can you remember your family?"

Maurice face scrunched up even more. It looked like his brain was about to explode from all the effort from trying to remember things that had been long forgotten.

"My sister was loud. Not around my parents but around me. She was younger than me and wore pants when my parents weren't around she hated all the frilly stuff. My mother was nice, she never really yelled at us and she cooked us really good meals. Her pot roasts were the best. My dad wasn't really around me we worked in our farm…I think. It's really fuzzy with him. I remember he was tall with sandy hair and blue eyes. My sister looked more like my father; I think I looked more like my mother. After that I really can't remember. I remember being tired a lot and sore like I had been lifting heavy stuff. I remember working hard but never feeling like I was working hard enough."

Chris watched his face as it slumped into a sad frown. Chris bit her lip and realized that his father probably never gave him the praise a son wanted from his dad. Chris hugged his arm her hand still entwined with his. Maurice smiled.

"So your sister was like a tom boy?"

Maurice chuckled, "I think, it's fuzzy but I think we once swam in the stream by our house after we had finished helping Ma with something. I remember us having a lot of fun together. You and Brian sort of remind me of us, I think we were close, me and my sister. But something happened right before I think I became a monster. I think my sister got sick…"

"Y-you don't have to say anymore if you don't want to Maurice. Thanks for telling me about your life. It must be hard for you?"

Maurice shrugged, "I can't really remember my life at all. I told you all I could remember, so it doesn't really bother me. Sometimes I wish that I had stayed human, and just tried to do better. But I'd be lying if I said I hated being a monster. Despite the downsides being a monster is the best."

"Maybe Maurice if I was an orphan I would stay here and become a monster. But I have people who love me at home."

"Yep," was all that Maurice said.

"You know if it hadn't been for you I think I would have sunk into depression, you know that?"

Maurice sat up straighter and looked at her with confusion.

"I felt so alone, I had Brian and Eric but my parents were always busy with something else; especially after Eric was born. I tried to help them by being the best I could be, I thought if I became a perfect daughter they would see how perfect things were and they didn't have to fight. But I guess I grew up these last few years. I guess the real reason I never wanted any friends is because I didn't want to have to go through the pain of saying goodbye."

Maurice squeezed her hand a little tighter.

"I know, it's hard babe, but if you never take that chance then you'll never get to see all the great things about life. Sometimes the bad things make us appreciate the good things more than we could have if we didn't get hurt or sad... I'm glad I could help. You're a really great kid you know that?"

"You know what Maurice; you're a really great friend in my book. Even if you are the ugliest friend I've ever had."

Chris giggled as she did a little impression of him at the end.

"But then again beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."

Maurice smiled.

"What do I look like in your eyes?"

Chris looked at him and froze. She felt herself looking at him and was scared to find that she started to admire the features of his face. His lips were full, his eyes were a deep brown, his cheek bones were defined, his shoulders were broad and he looked like he was in pretty good shape. Chris looked back up into his eyes her face felt like it was on fire. She was more confused, awkward, and scared then she had ever been in her entire life.

Maurice stared back at her with a strange expression on his face. Chris just realized how hard she had been squeezing Maurice's hand. She lessened her grip and tried to slide her hand away but Maurice gently gripped her hand. This made Chris blush even deeper, she was sure her whole face was tomato red. Maurice was gently leaning towards her and Chris found herself leaning towards him to. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage trying to escape. Chris felt her eyes flutter as their faces came closer and closer together. Her heart nearly stopped when she felt his nose brush hers. She blushed as she heard herself gasp.

She felt herself losing all uncertainty, all confusion, and all nervousness. She slowly let her eyes close until a loud thud crashed into the room and the two of them just inches away from their lips touching jumped away from each other and fell under the stuffed animals. Another thud went off and a loud screaming could be heard as someone fell in from the trap door.

Brian Stephenson looked around the room confused. This was the best torture boy could come up with? Some of stuffed animals moved and Todd poked his head out warily.

"Brian, it's you!"

"Todd! Is Eris or Chris here?"

"Nope," Kirsten said as her head surfaced above the stuffed toys.

"Kirsten."

Brian tried the door and like with Chris it didn't budge. Maurice and Chris hearing the familiar voices crawled back up to the others and Brain, Kirsten, and Todd were waiting for them with bats. Maurice surfaced first and Todd took a swing at him. But luckily Chris resurfaced right after and blocked the bat with her hand just in time before it collided with Maurice's skull. She shook her hand in pain glaring at Todd.

"Chris," Todd and Kirsten exclaimed "Maurice!"

Brian wore a huge grin at his safe unharmed sister.

"Chris, Maurice, what happened?"

"What happened? What happened!? Two inches lower and this _bonehead_ will be talking to my lawyer buddy boy," Maurice exclaimed angrily.

"Nothin Brian, Maurice just got beat up a little, but he should be okay."

"Your first aid kit," Brian asked.

Chris nodded.

"You two know him! He's a MONSTER!"

"Yeah, Todd Kirsten this is Maurice."

"Monster," Kirsten murmured to herself "I got an idea!"

"What do you got Kirsten," Chris asked eagerly.

"We can generate light by wiring pencils to the phone."

Kirsten held up the phone in confidence.

"Yo, Babe, light with pencils? Ha-ha-ha and _I'm _the_ POPE!"_

"I'd like to see that one," Chris said with a smirk.

Maurice just smirked suggestively down at her and she blushed and looked away and she could hear him chuckling.

"Just like a carbon lamp from a projector."

Kirsten took apart the phone and took out two pencils from her bag. They cut the black and red wires out of the phone, took the erasers off from the pencils and wrapped the wires around the metal ends.

"Done," Brian said holding up the pencils.

"Okay," Chris said and everyone gave her attention "This is going to be tough since we have to hand crank it so Brian and Todd, I want you two to take turns cranking so if one of you gets tired the other one can just quickly take over. Kirsten holds the pencils so that they'll spark, and I'll slide Maurice under the door. Okay"

Everyone nodded and Maurice laughed and went over to the door. Todd started cranking but it wasn't fast enough.

"Faster Todd," Kirsten encouraged.

Todd cranked faster and nothing happened. Maurice rolled his eyes.

"Great idea," Maurice said with a chuckle "Go Toad go! Go Toad go! Go Toad go!"

Maurice chanted and Todd cranked faster in annoyance the pencils started to lightly spark.

"FASTER!" Brian cried.

"I'm trying!"

Chris looked desperately at the pencils trying to make them spark with her eyes.

"Come on Todd, we can't start with Brian or we'll have to start over again. Come on Todd, I've seen monkey grinders crank faster! Come on!"

"Come on!" Kirsten added.

Maurice chuckling at the monkey grinder statement added "If at first you don't succeed, try, try… A LIGHT!"

It was true Todd had managed to create a harsh white light but it was clear that he was getting tired. Brian quickly took over and the light dimmed until Brian got the pace and cranked faster.

Chris grabbed Maurice but realized that his shoes wouldn't fit under the door. She slipped the shoes off threw them carelessly to the side and slipped the clothes quickly under the door, wincing at the pained noises Maurice made. Chris shoved the sleeves under the door and then Brian lay back exhausted.

"Okay Maurice let us out." Brian said as the four of them crowded around the door.

"Any of you freaks know how to pick a combination lock?"

All four of them groaned and Chris and Brian leaned against the door. There wasn't any other way out and without Maurice's help they were doomed.

The door opened and Brian and Chris hit the floor.

"Just joking! What are you two doing lying around we got work to do buds!"

Brian rushed passed Maurice and Todd moved quickly after him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get more firepower."

Everyone ran after Brian and Maurice was left behind stuttering.

"Well, you see, uh…let's go!"

Maurice limped after them. The five of them snuck out of Boy's room and went back to the school where Brian had got the lights from on their way to rescue Chris and Eric. Maurice limped off to another staircase and the four of them grabbed enough lights to light up a whole park, they grabbed wires, small bulbs, big bulbs, four construction helmets, and four hockey body guards.

"Where's Maurice?"

"Don't worry about him. He's visiting an old friend."

With their satchels filled to the brim they went back down into the underworld. The four of them looked despairingly at the huge car battery. None of them were strong enough to carry that thing, even Maurice would have a hard time lifting it. Never the less the team started to put together the nightmare of every monster that had ever lived. The four of them were covered in head to toe in lights. About two flashlights were taped to every helmet, the hockey body guards were covered with lights upon lights, and lights covered their arms and legs. A giant feeder cable trailed behind them to the car batteries.

"Ahem."

The four turned around to see Maurice with a very excited looking Ronnie Coleman.

"Someone order a little strength?"

Ronnie grinned as he and Maurice easily picked up the car batteries.

"Thanks' Ronnie, we appreciate this."

The team of monster hunters walked up to Boy's room ready to take down Boy once and for all and rescue the last Stephenson. After reaching the top of Boy's room the four of them slipped on sunglasses. Brian and Chris wore the one's Maurice had given them, Kirsten a dark pair of regular sunglasses, Todd was wearing a dark lenses over his glasses that could flip up over his glasses, Ronnie wore a slim pair of sunglasses. As the kids entered Boy's room Maurice hatched a backup plan in his head and he hurried back down the stairs. The team walked confidently to meet Snick and boy they stopped hallway in the room and Ronnie dropped the Car batteries onto the floor. Brian and Chris stared defiantly up at Boy and Boy stared back with fear at what stood in front of him.

"What the..?"

"Say goodnight Boy," Brian yelled.

Ronnie grinned and clamped the cables onto the battery. The room filled with light and a horrible shrieking filled the air. Boy turned into clothes and the clothes folded neatly then caught fire and burned until they were nothing but ash.

"Oh, SHIT!" Snick demise wasn't as neat as Boy's death was. His body exploded in a fiery flame, the pieces of clothing flying everywhere. The lights shorted out and sparked until they went out completely. After the horror was over the four of them threw the lights off and looked horrified at the beeping watch around Brian's wrist.

"The beep, we got to get out of here!"

"Why? What's the beep got to do with anything?"

"The beep is sunrise."

"Crap! Come on we have to find Eric!"

The four of them scattered and searched the room frantically. They made it up onto the platform strange and searched for Eric frantically behind curtains, in the boxes, until they heard a small voice coming from the second to last box. They pulled on it but the lid wouldn't budge. Brian noticing the pedal turns it and jack and the box music floated into the air and out popped Eric.

"ERIC!"

Chris scooped him into her arms and grabbed Brian and squeezed them together in a warm relieved hug. The group ran down the stairs making their escape but stopped in front of the door in dismay.

"Oh SHIT!" Todd yelled dismayed and scared.

There stood Snick growling looking angry beyond all belief, in one piece but missing his left leg.

"How much time," Kirsten asked afraid of the answer.

Brian glanced at his watch.

"Maybe a minute," Brian said with a shrug.

"Great," Todd turned to Ronnie "Coleman, you think you can take him?"

"No way!"

"Looks like there's no way out!" Snick laughed manically and Chris shuddered.

"Who is that guy?" Eric asked holding onto his sister who grabbed his shoulders comfortingly.

"Hey Snick!"

"Maurice." Chris asked looking around hopefully.

Snick's eyes widened and he turned around. There stood Maurice with lit a flamethrower in his hands.

"How 'bout a light bud?"

Maurice pointed the gun at him and set Snick on fire. Snick fell to the ground with a loud thump screaming in pain and Maurice stepped back satisfied.

"Come on guys let's go home."

The kids ran to the door stepping carefully over Snick to avoid getting burned. Then the 6 of them ran down the master staircase towards home as fast as their legs could carry them.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in anyway.**

At the foot of the master staircase the other monsters all cheered happily and high fived the group. Snick and Boy were dead. Now nobody would hurt or rule over them ever again. The group ran through the congratulation crowd and ran like road runners towards home. As their staircase neared they ran hopefully towards it as fast as their legs could carry them. But Maurice was the first one up and when he ran up to the shadow as if he would go through it he hit his head on a boarded up ceiling. Maurice held his head in pain looking up at the boards with a look close to disbelief and dread. Brian tried hitting the boards as if it might let him in if he hit hard enough.

"Brian stop sit down, kids, down."

All the kids sat down with looks of confusion and worry on their faces. Chris sat right next to him and gently laid her hand on his for just a second then moved her hand to her lap.

"Kids, it's too late." He looked around at the group who looked at him with a look of understanding and finality.

"What's that supposed to mean," Eric shouted scared of the answer.

"It means we've disected our last frog. Were stuck, were monsters." Todd said with a tone of hopelessness and dread.

Silence shrouded the group and each one of them looked sullen and less than hopeful.

"Well, I can handle that." This came from Ronnie Coleman who seemed indifferent.

Kirsten began to gently sob and Eric looked like he was close to tears too. Maurice looked around the group despairingly feeling like a complete failure. He looked at Chris and his heart fell completely as he saw her clutching her knees to her chest with her head was lying on her knees, her hair bouncing with her silent sobs.

"Well…I can't."

Brian stood up, a boy on a mission and ran down the steps. Everyone looked after him as he ran off.

"Where are you goin' bud?"

"West," was shouted defiantly.

Chris got up with a similar look of determination. She grabbed Eric's hand and motioned for the other kids to follow and ran after Brian. Maurice stared off at the group with a silent look of respect and weariness then stood up and limped after them. The group then proceeded to run across the underworld visiting every staircase that promised a way home. They hadn't had much luck yet. They just left Arizona and they were doing California. Maurice ran up a staircase and stuck his hand through hopefully and his hand went through the shadow. Maurice laughed joyfully.

The others soon ran up to the staircase and Maurice lifted each one through to the other side. The only ones left were Chris and Brian.

Maurice motioned to the shadow, "you're next."

Brian looked at the ground then back at Maurice with a sad smile, "I wish I could stay."

"You'd be a hero down here."

Chris watched from the sidelines a happy yet sad smile on her face.

"Maurice, our arms; I mean, they turned into clothes last night."

"Don't worry about that. You'll sleep that off! Nothings permanent 'less you get trapped down here bud."

Brian smiled bitter sweetly.

"But, uh, I suppose you got to get up there because you're gonna get married pretty soon."

"Married, to whom?"

Maurice looked at the ground blankly before replying, "light bulb; red."

"Oh Kirsten, nah just friends."

"Friends? Yeah, well, I guess that's what it's all about huh?"

"Yeah…I guess. You know what? You're the best friend I've ever had."

Maurice looked at him in disbelief and surprise.

"Well you're the ugliest friend I've ever had."

Brian laughed half-heartedly and so did I.

Maurice laid a hand on Brian's shoulder, "time to move on bud."

"I'm going to miss you Maurice," Brian said close to tears "I really am."

Maurice looked like he was about to say something but was cut off by Todd yelling: "Let's go guys. There's no way I'm running to Hawaii."

Brian cocked his head at the ground and made a move to leave but Maurice gently stopped him.

"Hang on." He hesitantly slipped his vest off.

"Oh, no Maurice."

"Relax," Maurice said as he slipped the vest onto Brian's shoulders "I'll get a new one. How else are you going to remember me anyway?"

"Brian, Chris, let's go." It was Eric this time. Chris could tell time was short.

"Bye Maurice," Brian said with tears in his eyes.

Brian held up his hand and Maurice looked at it with a bittersweet look. They did the hand shake and pressed their foreheads together keeping their hands on each other's shoulders.

"Remember, if there's a bed there's a way."

Brian laughed and Maurice patted him on the back and lifted him through. Chris stepped towards the shadow and Maurice turned towards her with a depressed look. He held out his hand for a respectable handshake. Chris took it then pulled him in for a tight hug.

Chris leaned in and whispered in his ear, "thank you for everything Maurice. I'll miss you."

Chris felt a little brave so she gave him a kiss on the cheek. He tensed but hugged her tightly after a few seconds. They didn't say anything because they knew we were cutting it close. He grabbed Chris around the waist and lifted her through the shadow. Everyone shouted happily as Chris crawled out from under the sleeping man's chair that had created the shadow. Brian looked sad and Chris knew that her face probably had that same sad hollow expression. Chris walked over to him and gently shook his shoulders comfortingly. Brian smiled up at her and as they watched every one running to the sea to celebrate they joined them.

Later after they had done enough celebrating they found a payphone and gathered all the loose change they had in their pockets and called Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson. The kids all crowded around Chris as she held the phone to her ear.

"**Hello?"**

"Mom it's me! I have Brian and Eric!"

"**Oh thank heavens! Look, dad's here. Where are you, tell us and we'll come pick you up."**

"Malibu."

There was silence on the other line for a few moments.

"**Where the hell's that?"**

Chris winced as she said, "California."

Silence again.

"**California? How the hell did you get there?!"**

Chris looked around at the kids who had risked their humanity to help them before sighing. "It's sort of a long story Ma."

**A/N- This is not the end. I will add more chapters to this story I just felt it was necessary to end this chapter here since the movie did it. Thanks' to everyone who reads and reviews this story. I appreciate it.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer- I don't own little monsters: Movie, book, or comic book in any way, shape, or form.**

_**A/N- These next chapters will not be based off the movie since there is no movie left. I will be taking, maybe, characters or plot lines from the comic book but probably only for this chapter. Thanks for anyone who is chapter will be a little more dark only for the dream sequence.**_

Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson listened quietly as their daughter weaved a short version of the story that sounded nothing less than a fable, leaving out the part where Maurice and she almost kissed of course. Chris was not about to let her parents and least of all Brian or Todd hear that Maurice and her had almost shared a kiss. The thought of how Brian would haunt her with that knowledge was horrible.

Chris finished her story with a wince waiting to hear her parents belch out an annoyed lecture but all they responded with was a simple reply that they would pick them up at the nearest airport and to call them from there. Well, they did and the parents, not surprisingly, didn't believe them. Not until all the kids insisted with a passion that all of what Chris had said was real and showed them the bomber vest. The parents just stared with eyes the size of saucers at first, overcome by shock and confusion but eventually they accepted it with almost indifferent sadness and guilt, but paid for all the kids to fly home with them.

From that time on those kids stuck together like polar ends of magnets. Whenever it was possible they would always meet and go to the movies or go and hang out at the local fast food place. Soon they were all the best of friends. Time went on and Chris soon found herself at high schools doorstep then, in no time at all, 11th grade. Chris and Brian never forgot Maurice, Brian wore the vest constantly making a vow never to take it off. Sometimes while Chris and he sat in the living room, Chris reading a book while he played a video game, something triggered a memory of Maurice. Then, he would sigh sadly in remorse and slowly stand and walk up to his room with heavy steps.

Chris also had these sorts of episodes except she would most likely grab something out of the fridge, laze on the couch, turn on the television, and watch some R.L. Stine or horror mystery show to avert her attention from the happy but saddening memories. To say that they weren't any better with the parting from Maurice would be a false statement through and through. Chris became the class president of her high school, first chair for trumpet and saxophone in her band, and made a ton of new friends. Brian's grades improved greatly, on a rare occasion a D or D's but never F's. Brian also got a whole new circle of friends; he even started dating Kirsten to boot. But both would agree, even with all the new friends, that they would never have a friend like Maurice ever again.

The siblings were still close but time always causes things to weaken and though the kids still kept in touch, the kids started to spend less time together. Eric moved out and lived with their father in the city while Chris and Brian stayed with their mother. Chris often enjoyed sleeping and reading in the quiet house on the weekends while her brother was out with friends. Brian would often bug her to go out with him, speed date, do something and get out of the house. But Chris was content to sit in her bean bag chair and read book upon book until the sunlight dimmed into darkness. Part of her didn't want to associate with the loud, crowded, party atmosphere; the other part didn't care, as long as a certain blue monster was there with her.

She had tried, very optimistically, to date but it never struck a chord with her. The boys were all nice and seemed to like her, it was always enjoyable, the places that the dates took place in were never unpleasant; but, she never felt that spark with them. Brian would often exclaim with a click of his tongue that it was a shame. She was a good looking girl and she didn't even show herself off. Chris had indeed matured into a fine young lady. She had grown an inch, her hair had gotten longer, her figure became leaner, and began taking on a smooth, soft, hourglass shape. Her hair became so long and thick that she often had to put it into a pony tail to keep it tamed.

Chris always had Maurice on her mind in some form or another. Whether it be memories, ponderings of what he was doing at that moment or if he had changed in the last three years, if he would even remember her. It confounded her to the point of ripping her hair out in frustration and confusion. Why did she think of him so actively? Why did she miss him so much? Why did it seem that every time she thought of dating Maurice would pop into her head? These questions and more like them were often bouncing around in her head and no matter how hard she thought she never found an answer. Or, maybe, she just didn't want to admit the inevitable real reason why she constantly thought of Maurice.

Now, three years after Brian and her had killed Snick and Boy and parted ways with Maurice, Chris is doing her favorite activity: sitting in her bean bag chair, an ice cold glass of water on the wooded floor beside her, reading a good book. Brian had informed her earlier that he was going to spend tonight studying at Kirsten's house. Chris had rolled her eyes at the memo knowing all too well what they were going to do. Their studying basically consisted of them studying for a total of ten or in a rare occurrence twenty minutes before they started to goof off and watch a movie or make out.

A friend from school had invited her to a party earlier that day and she accepted and had a great time. With that fun, however, came drowsiness. Chris had promised Brian she would wait for him to unlock the door since she had the keys to the house that day, but that promise was becoming increasingly difficult to keep.

The book lay limply in her lap forgotten and she leaned back in the bean bag chair. She felt her eyes start to droop so she took a gulp of ice water to shock her awake. Chris hoped that Brian would be back soon, she didn't know how long she could keep this up for. Thankfully a bump came from the door and Chris heaved herself up and trudged towards the door. She opened it and Brian gave her a mumbled greeting then sped passed her straight into the kitchen.

"Nice to see you to, I'll be upstairs sleeping if you need me."

A muffled okay came from the kitchen Chris stepped backwards to see half of Brian's torso shoved into the fridge. She stared blankly for a few seconds then moved on and made her way upstairs. In her own private bedroom she crashed on her bed and sighed. She buried herself under the soft blankets fitting her head into the soft support of her pillow and closed her eyes.

_Chris looks around horrified at the destruction of her fantasy world. The entire underworld is in ruin. The once tall and proud: towers, bridges, and staircases are nothing but dust, splinters, and the occasional nail. The street signs and various junk that filled the underworld is bent, mangled, and damaged beyond recognition. Chris ran to the Monster Ball field horrified to find nothing there but a few scraps of wood and metal lying on the field, not even a fragile object to assure that life still thrived there. But the worst part of all was the silence. The underworld was many things but quiet was not one of them. Not a single monster could be seen and there was no sound, not even distant footsteps, not even the sparkle that normally sails through the starless sky. It looked abandoned and dead._

_Chris began running. Where she had no idea but she continued running through the underworld till she came to rest at Boy's room. She looked up in anger and disgust at the only building left standing in the underworld. Highly concentrated anger pumped through every vein and artery. Her entire body, every muscle pulsed with boiling heat. She pounded up the stairs brushing away the fact that the stairs might collapse at any moment. At the top…how had she gotten to the top so fast? It didn't matter, all that mattered was throwing open the doors and making Boy wish that he had stayed dead._

_Chris nearly fell back in shock. Fear and dread froze every inch of her skin. She suddenly felt very cold and very small. In the room were the all the monsters sitting still perfectly healthy but they looked dead, as if they had been turned into living zombies. Some raised their head to give her a glazed, dead, hollow stare. Others didn't even bother, or maybe they were dead. Chris was frozen under their stares, they all screamed out for help begging her to do something. What could she do if Boy had all this power? All she wanted was Maurice. Maurice!_

_Her body warmed at the mere thought and she walked by the other monsters with a promising stare. All she had to do was find Maurice then they could stop this and save the other monsters. The throng of zombified monsters looked back at her with pleading stares but not plead of help but plead of warning. A few even tried reaching out to her to make her see but they were too weak to even stand and they looked after her defeated and forlorn._

_Chris rushed up the stage and peered into every nook and cranny until she came to the curtained platform. She ran over eagerly and grabbed hold of the curtain. The other monsters shook their head furiously hoping they could stop her. But it was too late. Chris drew back the curtain and she screamed. There tied onto the giant size dart board was Maurice. Maurice's head hung limply down at her like a doll and his eyes bore into hers. But his eyes weren't possessed with the life and sparkle they usually had. The brown was dim and his eyes were glazed over. Chris mouth hung open in horror and fresh tears ran down her cheeks. Maurice's clothes were ripped and bloody and his appendages even tied down bent at an unnatural angle. Chris sank to the floor and wept. Maurice, her dear Maurice, had been killed in what she considered was one of the most inhumane ways you could kill a living creature. Maurice had been beaten to death._

"Chris!"

Chris sat up in bed to meet Brian; concerned and all knowing. He was holding her shoulders tightly and Chris noticed the burning of her eyes and the wet stain of her cheeks. Chris cocked her gaze to the floor avoiding eye contact at all cost.

"Are you okay Chris?"

Brian received no response. The only thing he received even resembling a response was Chris hugging her legs into her chest and laying her head on her knees.

"Chris…did you have the Maurice dream again?"

Again he received no response. Brian climbed onto the bed and wrapped a comforting arm around Chris's shoulders.

"Chris, it's just a dream. Maurice is not in any danger."

"How do you know?"

"If Boy and Snick were alive they would have probably used him as bait or gotten us first."

Chris sighed. Chris knew Brian was right she had known the first time she had the nightmare. But this daily night ritual, this nightmare was tearing her apart.

"I miss him Brian. Why can't we go see him?"

Brian looked dumbfounded for a second then looked up at her with a blank face.

"I don't know."

Chris assured Brian that she was okay then went back to sleep. She woke up the next morning drowsy, stiff, and in one of those really grumpy early morning moods. She dragged herself out of bed and downstairs. In the kitchen she hit the coffee maker and slid two slices of a bagel into the toaster. She fell onto the couch lazing there listening to the coffee maker pour the coffee into the mug. When the alarm went off the stiffly stood up, walked over to the coffee maker, and hit the button with an annoyed grumble. Her bagels popped out of the toaster shortly after and she laid those out onto a paper towel and smothered them with strawberry cream cheese.

She ate her breakfast quietly and when she was done she tossed the paper towel in the sink and the cup in the trash. Wait that wasn't right! She went back and put them into their respectable places then went to her bookshelf. Video games…played them. Movies…watched them. Books…read them. She groaned in boredom. It was only 8 in the morning and she had nothing to do. Brian rushed down stairs waved at her and grabbed and apple.

"Where are you going Brian? We don't have school today."

"Todd and I are working on our project today. I told him I would be there early around 8."

Chris gave Brian a knowing and un-amused look.

"I'm not mooching off of Todd! I got to go, see ya later Chris."

Brian ran out the door and Chris sat back into the couch.

"Whatever."

Chris lazed the day away watching dumb reality shows. At one point in the day she realized that she could go outside; it wasn't as if it was pouring rain. Although, rain would be fun, dancing in rain was always the best. Chris thought about it then sunk even deeper into the couch. No she couldn't go outside, there was no reason to. She was the only one in the house and it was sad when you were playing ball with yourself. Her bike had a flat tire. She supposed she could take a walk but she was in one of those moods where you just don't really want take a leisurely stroll.

There Chris sat, alone in a two story house letting her brain soak in the television. Around 4 o'clock Brian came home. He strolled into the house pride and happiness glowing from him.

"Hey Chris," Brian eyed the TV accusingly, "have you been watching this all day."

She turned to him her eyes bloodshot from staring at the screen. "Uh huh."

"Chris you have got to get a boyfriend, a-a hobby, something. You can't spend your time lazing in front of the TV."

"Brian, stop worrying. I'm fine; I'll find the right guy in my own time."

Brian just stared at her with an unsure expression then sighed and turned to the stairs. Chris listened as Brian's footsteps echoed through the house. She watched the television for the rest of the night, thinking. Finally Chris made up her mind and ran upstairs. She put on a pair of loose ripped jeans, a Journey T-shirt, and then her denim vest. She looked herself over in the mirror straightening and combing her hair until it stayed in a high ponytail with bangs. She looked over at the bed and walked slowly over to it.

She kneeled and lifted the bed staring at the shadow. A million thoughts ran through her head all at once. What if she couldn't travel through shadows anymore? What if she could never see Maurice again? But what if she could? The thought of seeing Maurice again filled her with joy and she closed her eyes and hoped for the best. When her hand met a solid floor she was devastated. She leaned back feeling foolish. Of course she wouldn't be able to travel through shadows anymore; it had been over three years. She leaned against the bed tears of sadness prickling at her eyes; until a hand wrapped gently around her wrist.

"Wow babe, I didn't know you missed me this much."

**A/N- CLIFF HANGER! I'm so evil. Hope you guys like the story so far and I'll have the next chapter up in a jiffy.**


	15. Chapter 15

**I don't own Little Monsters in anyway. I only own Chris.**

**A/N- This chapter will have a lot of fluff. I haven't had a lot in my other chapters but this will be loaded with nothing but fluff. After all, she hasn't seen Maurice in 3 years of course she's gonna be all shy around him. Enjoy the chapter.**

Chris whipped her head to meet the grinning face of Maurice.

"MAURICE!"

Chris tackled Maurice in a crushing hug and they tumbled into the underworld. Chris didn't even notice the fall as she crushed her face into Maurice's chest. She had uncontrollable urge to reach up and kiss Maurice's face over and over again, but she kept herself at bay. Maurice chuckled and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I'm glad to see you remember me."

"Of course I remember you. How could I forget you?"

She looked into his eyes with a huge grin and then broke out laughing from the pure happiness she was in.

"Maurice, you have no idea how much I've missed you." She said hugging him loosely with her head on his shoulder.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you…and the other rascal of course."

They hugged for a few more seconds; but, neither wanting the embrace to become awkward, they pulled away from each other. With Maurice resting his hands on her shoulders of course.

"So, how's life on the upside huh?"

Chris grinned and told Maurice all about her and Brian's new life. Maurice listened patiently with a few cracks now and then and when she had finished he nodded his head like a physiatrist would after listening to his patient.

"I'm glad to hear that, maybe you and I could play together sometime."

Chris looked up excitedly, "You play an instrument?"

"Yeah, it's wimpy but I play the vi-o-line."

Chris giggled, "You mean the violin."

"Yep that's the one."

"Sounds like it would be fun," Chris said imagining Maurice playing in an orchestra, a thought that made her giggle.

"So…you didn't mention a boyfriend," Chris blushed but was too embarrassed to hear the slight jealousy in his voice.

"That's because I don't have one."

Chris looked up to meet Maurice's face in a 'yeah right expression'.

"I'm serious! I've dated a few guys before but I never really…you know…felt anything with them."

Maurice couldn't help but grin happily. He still had a chance with her! But he quickly replaced it with a look of understanding; he didn't want her upset at him the first few minutes she was back.

"Ah, well, who knows? Maybe the guy for you is right around the corner."

Chris looked over at him with a soft smile before muttering, "Yeah."

"Hey! I've got a great idea!" He pulled Chris to her feet and dragged her across the underworld.

"Maurice! Where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise!"

Chris giggled and ran behind him. She was surprised at how fast Maurice could run, she was a track runner and she still had a hard time keeping up with him. Chris bumped into Maurice falling into the dirt as he stopped suddenly in front of a metal staircase.

"Whoops, sorry Babe."

Chris looked up at the staircase dumb with wonderment. Maurice gently grabbed her hand and gave her a knowing smile. He helped her through the shadow and gently covered her eyes. He led her to the shadowed edge of the building they were on then uncovered her eyes. Chris gasped as she overlooked Paris from the Eiffel Tower. Maurice watched with a smile on his face as Chris leaned over the rail and gazed admiringly down at the world of Paris below.

"Maurice…it's gorgeous!"

"It is," only Maurice wasn't looking at the city when he said that.

"Maurice, I wish you could come into the light. These lights are amazing."

"Cat I've already seen it. I just came here because I knew you would like 'em. Speaking of things that you would like…" Maurice broke out in laughter and took a reluctant to leave Chris back into the underworld before pulling her right up another staircase.

"M' lady."

Maurice held out his hand as he stood on a gondolier in a dark moonlit part of Paris. Chris grinned and took his hand as he helped her into the boat. Maurice grabbed the "oar" which in this case was a long stick and gently pushed them through the water. Chris giggled and ran her fingers through the water touching the moons reflection. Chris noticed Maurice stop and looked up curiously.

Maurice reclined in the gondolier with his hands behind his neck. "I don't need to push it anymore babe we've got our own, all natural motor."

Chris looked up ahead and gazed upon a beautiful crystalline lake. The gentle waves were slowly pulling the gondolier along out towards the middle of the lake.

"Maurice what lake is this?"

"Hmm," Maurice asked looking lazily over the clear sparkling waters "I have no idea babe. All I know is that there are no people here today on account of something happening in the square."

Chris nodded and looked over the side of the gondolier gazing at her reflection in the water. Some sliver fish swam by and she gently poked her finger into the water. Some of the fish swam passed her finger absentmindedly, some went around, and some gently nudged her finger before swimming away.

"Thanks for taking me here Maurice, its great."

"Ah, it was nothing. Bedside's I had to change things up, what fun would it be doing the same things over again?"

"Not much fun I guess…"

Chris looked over at Maurice reclining with his eyes closed and thought what a perfect guy he was. I mean, maybe he wasn't the best looking guy in the world. Still, what did that matter, it's the inside that counts not what someone looks like. She felt her heart flutter and her cheeks heat as she thought of how sweet, funny, and even brave he was. He took out Snick! Okay, he took him out with a blowtorch but that still took bravery. Any girl in the underworld would be lucky to have him love her. Chris wished that Maurice loved her. Wait, love!

Chris nearly fell out of the boat.

"Babe you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris said as she steadied herself back into the boat.

Was the real reason for all these feeling, the constant thoughts about him, the loneliness, and the nightmares of losing him; because she felt something for Maurice? Chris looked up at Maurice and she knew it was true. She liked Maurice…a lot. Maybe even in a way loved him. I mean Brian did see him as a brother already right so if they ever got married… Chris shook her head. She shouldn't be planning the wedding already, hell, she didn't know if Maurice even felt the same way she did.

"M-Maurice?"

"Yeah Chrissi?"

Chris sighed. Well, here goes nothing.

"What are your feelings for me?"

Maurice fell in the boat with a start and looked at the ground a light violet color to his cheeks.

"What do you mean babe?"

"What do you feel for me?"

Chris could already here the answer. As a friend, that's all she would ever be for him. Brian and he were friends and she was the other friend. Everything was going to be awkward now. Chris waited for Maurice to answer with dread in her stomach.

"I-I-I like you."

Chris looked up. Her heart melted when she saw him stumbling over his words and unable to get any words out, and his face contorted in panic.

"W-well, w-what I m-mean is… I like you as a friend but I like you much more than a friend. You're a really cool chick and you make me feel all weird inside. IN A GOOD WAY! Not in a bad way, nothing you do could ever be bad, but…UH! I'm blowing it!"

Chris scooted over to Maurice's side blush covering her cheeks. She gently grabbed his hand and Maurice looked up scared at what she might say.

"I-I really like you too Maurice. I think that I like, like you. Whenever I went on a date with those other guys I never felt anything but with you… I feel happier with you Maurice."

They looked up at each other and gently smiled. Their faces gravitated closer until their noses brushed each other. Chris let her eyes flutter shut and Maurice gently leaned in all the way and pressed his lips to hers. Maurice closed his eyes as he enjoyed the first kiss he had ever had with a woman…ever. It wasn't a super passionate kiss or a long one. It was sweet and lingered but broke apart after a few seconds. In Chris's mind she couldn't have asked for a better first kiss. It was simple and sweet like what she thought a first kiss should be.

She pulled away blushing furiously and Maurice leaned back his face a now light violet color. A goofy grin lit his face and Chris giggled as she looked at him.

"So do you wanna, maybe try, being…together?" Maurice asked hopefully.

"I'd like that…a lot."

She gently kissed his cheek and leaned on his shoulder. Maurice wrapped his arm around Chris and looked up at the moon. He smiled happily and laid his head on top of hers, at that moment Maurice didn't care about anything else. All that mattered were them right now, and the two of them sat in the gondolier on the serene lake just enjoying the presence of one another.

**A/N- Hope you liked this chapter. I didn't have them say I love you because in all honesty, who says I love you to the person you like on the first date. Thank you to anyone who is reading.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in anyway. I only own Chris.**

At around 4:10 Maurice rowed them back to shore and walked her home through the underworld. It was the strangest feeling to Chris because they were acting the same around each other but yet everything was different between them. Chris liked this; this is what she thought a perfect relationship was, loving a person while still being their best friend. Maurice walked her home enjoying her hand in his; he never noticed how big his hand was compared to his hand. In fact, now that he thought about it, he never realized how much bigger than her he was as a whole. He was almost a whole foot taller than her. But hugging they seemed to fit together perfectly, something Maurice noted with a certain happiness.

At their staircase Maurice walked her up the stairs and then looked up at the shadow before looking back at her.

"Here we are babe."

"Yeah, home sweet home," Chris looked at the ground before giggling, "wait till Brian finds out we can see you again. He will flip!"

"Actually, I was hopin' you and me could spend the week together. Not that I don't want to see Bri again. He's my best bud but it's a little hard to have a date when you got another guy there, especially your brother."

Chris laughed, "Yeah your right. I'll wait till next week to tell him. See ya Maurice."

Chris made a move towards the shadow but Maurice gently grabbed her hand.

"What Maurice."

"I just wanted to give you this."

Maurice smiled slyly and pulled her in for a hug. Chris returned it warmly, blushing lightly because she had thought he was going to kiss her, but quickly brushed it off enjoying the warm tight hug. As she pulled away Maurice placed a soft chaste kiss on her lips.

"So Chris, how about we go scarin' tomorrow night. About 8 o'clock?"

Chris pulled away with a raised eyebrow and blush from the kiss.

"Maurice, are you asking me on a date?" It was really just to tease him but the light blush on her cheeks told him that she was flattered.

"Well, we are dating. Aren't we?" Maurice asked almost frightened that he had misinterpreted her words and they really weren't together.

Chris gave him another hug. "Of course we are; I told you I really like you. I would love to go 'scaring' with you Maurice."

Chris placed a kiss on his cheek, still shy about kissing him full on the lips herself.

"See you tonight."

With that she ran up through the shadow and into her room just as the morning sun shone over the horizon and the shadow boarded up. Chris sat on her bed a few seconds, lying down when her back became sore until she fully realized what happened. She and Maurice were together. She and Maurice were together! Chris giggled and jumped for joy on her bed squealing and giggling like a maniac. After getting that out of her system she ran downstairs and made herself some pancakes. Brian who had woken up from the pounding bed went downstairs to find Chris.

When he came downstairs Chris was humming one of her favorite songs to herself making some pancakes. He looked for the usual morning necessities she always woke up with. No cup of coffee and no bagel. Now Brian was suspicious.

"Chris, what are you doing up so early."

"Just wanted to be an early riser, oh, you want some breakfast? I'm making pancakes."

"Alright, what's up? Spill your beans."

"What?" Chris asked with an amused smile.

"You never wake up early on the weekends. Why are you so happy today?"

Chris shrugged casually, "I met someone last night."

"Oh, you met someone. Well, he better be good to my sister because you're practically in love with him already."

"I am not," Chris retorted stubbornly.

"Uh, yeah, you are."

Chris didn't answer just kept on flipping the pancakes in the pan.

"So, when am I going to meet the guy?"

Chris shrugged again, "I don't know. I just met him but…probably next week."

Brian nodded approvingly and Chris set down a plate of about 5 pancakes in front of him. Brian stuffed his face while Chris made some more pancakes for herself. Walking over to the table Chris sat down in across from Brian who had almost wiped out his plate in less than ten minutes.

"Are you doing anything today?"

Brian shook his head and garbled out unidentifiable words through a mouthful of pancake.

"What?"

Brian swallowed, "I said no, but I was thinking you and me could go to that old metal junkyard. I heard that there's a ton of old metal parts we could scrape up over there."

"I thought no one was even allowed in there," Chris said taking a bite of her pancake.

"I did too until Ben told me about the guy who owns it. If we go over to his place and ask him for permission he'll hand us the keys and we can walk right in and take whatever we want.

"Hmm, sounds like fun… I'm in."

Brian grinned and downed the rest of breakfast. Chris threw her uneaten ones in the fridge and they grabbed their vests and ran out the door. Brian and Chris were definitely old enough to get their driver licenses but they didn't have a car to drive. Brian and Chris were too proud to ask their mom for money and would much rather save up the money to buy a brand new car. They were almost at their goal but since they had no car they either: took the bus, walked, or rode bikes to their destination. Today they were walking because their bikes were flat and they didn't have enough spare change for bus fare for the both of them to ride.

The old metal junkyard was about 5 miles from the house. But Chris and Brian were used to long walks and didn't think much of it. Brian looking at a map looked up then back down at the map making sure he was looking at the right house.

"Yep, this is the place alright."

"He lives in this dump?" Chris asked almost pityingly.

Brian and Chris stood in front of an old hermit shack on the edge of an abandoned street. The street sign was leaning and all the other house lots were empty with nothing but dirt and a few other house parts around them. The house was in horrible shape. It looked to be a one room shack, the wood peeling and rotting away, and the shingles falling away from the roof, leaving holes.

"Yeah... Let's go."

The two of them walked up to the door and tenderly knocked on the rotting door. The sound of annoyed yelling and shouting came from inside then loud thudding footsteps. The door swung open and slammed into the wall and in the doorway stood an elderly man. He was dressed in an old World War 2 Navy uniform and it was adorned in an assortment of ribbons and medals. He had no hair, lots of wrinkles, but his eyes still had that passionate shine of war and dignity.

"What is it? What do you kids want?"

"Sir, we came to ask you permission to grab some metal parts from your scrap yard."

He looked the two over before nodding with a gruff growl and walking in the house. He came back with a rusting ring with an ancient key dangling from it.

"There you go, take whatever you want. But bring that key back ya hear!"

"Yes Sir, we'll bring it back by the end of the day."

"Ah, you don't have to bring it back today! Just bring it back," he gave the kids an almost knowing stare before grumbling, "Never know when you might need it."

With that he slammed the door and walked back into his shack. Brian and Chris looked at one another and shrugged. Then the two started walking off towards the junkyard.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way, shape, or form. I only own the character Chris.**

The siblings walked over to the junkyard tossing the key back and forth to keep boredom away. As they neared the gate they each felt a sudden urge to run. The place looked awful, even for a junkyard. The place was horribly neglected, the metal parts, that probably could have been worth a good sum of money at one time, were rusted over or rusting, and were in positions that suggested that they had been tossed carelessly into the place. They looked up at the gate and pushed it aside, wincing at the loud squeak the rusted metal hinges made. The two spent the rest of the morning up until 3 sifting through all the busted metal scraps in that yard.

"You find anything else?" Brian looked down at the small pile of parts they had managed to save that weren't mangled beyond recognition or use. It wasn't much only a few car lights and old leather seats with holes in it.

"No, but I found a raccoon hat."

Chris lifted it up from behind her metal pile and then threw it over her shoulder. She dug a little more into the pile and came across a really old metal baseball bat.

"Hey I found a bat…oh! I found an old car hood."

Brian walked over and grabbed the car hood and bat and looked them over.

"We might be able to use them; the bat looks good enough to play with. Maybe…maybe we could use the hood if we clean it off and prevent anymore rusting."

Chris looked up at the looming gray clouds. She examined the sky in thought then turned to Brian.

"We better get going…it looks like it's going to rain."

Brian looked up at the sky then nodded stiffly. Chris grabbed the bat from him and the other small parts while Brian carried the car hood and leather seats. The two of them walked home having a casual conversation about random things, laughing and having fun. They got home around 5 because they had stopped at an In-N-Out and picked up dinner. Brian and Chris tossed the stuff in the garage then went into the house and crashed on the couch with a burger and a coke in their hands.

"Okay, what do you want to watch?"

Chris shrugged, "I don't know. Whatever, just as long as it's not 2 hours long."

Brian browsed through their many movies then took one out and popped it into the player. The Back to the Future theme song played.

"Awesome! I love this, is it the first one?"

"Yeah, I lent the second one to Eric."

The two of them sat on the couch watching the movie commenting on the movie just for the fun of it. When it was done Brian stretched in the couch and tossed the garbage into the trash bin.

"Woo, I don't know about you sis, but I'm bushed. I think I'm going to hit the hay."

"Mm Kay. Good night."

"Good night sis."

He gently gave her a one arm hug then walked upstairs to his room. As soon as she heard his door shut she ran upstairs and took a quick shower. Then she put her hair in a loose ponytail allowing her hair to fall down her back. She put on a small amount of makeup and through on her best comfortable outfit. It was a pair of jeans with a few rips in it, then she through on a loose black t-shirt with cuts in the sleeve showing her shoulder, then she put on her black rose earrings. She glanced at the clock: 7:50. She knelt by the bed and taking a breath getting ready for the fall then she fell through the shadow.

She floated gently to the ground and Chris breathed a sigh of relief for the soft landing. She brushed herself off and went off to go look for Maurice. She wandered over the bridges for a little while until a pair of arms wrapped around her.

"Here you are."

Chris giggled and hugged him before giving him a quick peck on the lips.

"I didn't know where to find you."

"That's okay baby…actually, that gives me an idea. I'll take you too my place!"

"Wait, your place? Monsters…have houses?"

"Yeah, we have to sleep somewhere."

"You sleep?!"

Maurice just chuckled at her amazement and wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her down an unfamiliar path of the underworld. After a long walk along a really long bridge they made it to a huge area of the underworld filled with buildings that looked startlingly like apartments. There were tons of apartments and they were all in different places. Some were perched on high towers with ladders dangling down from the doors. Others were below Maurice and Chris on the dirt below. What amazed Chris was that each house had been customized. Some looked like tree houses, some looked like a gang headquarters, and some looked like one of those houses from Edward Scissorhands.

"Whoa…where do you live?"

Maurice chuckled and grinned down at Chris and led her up a few more flights of stairs before they stopped in front of a pale blue building with a black door with the number 501 on it.

"Why doesn't that shock me?"

"Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Bedsides I look good in blue."

Chris just chuckled and nodded. Maurice kicked in the door and allowed her to go in first. Chris peered inside and looked around amazed. The room was space themed and had a huge mobile of all the planets hanging from the ceiling. On top of that glow in the dark stars swirled around the planets like the Milky Way and covered all the walls and ceilings.

"This is awesome! Did you do this?"

Maurice waved his hand over her head, "Magic, remember?"

Sparkles rained from his hand again and she spluttered and spit the sparkles away. "Would you be so kind as to knock that off? I still have sparkles in my hair from the last time you did that!"

Maurice just chuckled very amused at her reaction. Chris looked around then frowned.

"If this is like an apartment, where's the kitchen? Where do you sleep?"

Maurice grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hall in the building. "Don't need kitchens remember? We get all our food from the food room in the arcade."

He kicked open the door at the end of the hall and pulled her inside. It was a small room with a king size bed in the middle of it, in the far corner was another door. Inside it was a small bathroom with a shower and a toilet.

"It's nice to know you shower."

Maurice about to make a retort with violet cheeks stopped when Chris ran to his side.

"I was just kidding." Then she gently and a bit nervously pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. Maurice closed his eyes; and, purred as he wrapped his arms gently but tightly around her waist and gently kissed back. This kiss was much more comfortable than the last one and it was a bit more curious. Chris slowly felt her nerves relax as they moved their lips together experimentally, noting the calming vibrate of his chest as he purred.

They slowly pulled their lips apart so they could breathe again and Maurice smiled down at her gently blushing face.

"I-I didn't know you purred."

Maurice looked at the ceiling then back down at her, "Neither did I Chrissi. So what do you want to do tonight darlin'?"

Chris gently laid her head on his shoulder as she thought. When a thought struck her she whipped her head up and looked at a waiting eager Maurice. Chris was about to say something when a loud pounding came to the door.

Maurice gazed at it annoyed before stomping over to it and throwing it open with a, "What?"

A little monster only about 3 feet tall stood in the doorway. His face was very Barbie ken like except ken didn't have moss green skin with black spots.

"Maurice there's this new monster who is taking control of the underworld!"

"Well, out with it! Who is it?"

The other monster shrugged. "Beat's me. I heard it through gossip. All I know is that it's definitely a dame and her name is Amber."

With that the other monster took off and ran down the flight of stairs leading to the China trail.

Maurice looked over at Chris who was looking at him with a blank face.

"You wanna check that out?"

"Not really, I was hoping we could go prank my brother and dad."

Maurice's mouth split into a delighted grin. "Now were talking."

Chris reminded him where her little brother and dad were living, in case he ever wanted to stop by again, and they head over to the staircase. Maurice and Chris ran up excitedly through the shadow and surveyed the room from under Eric's bed. Maurice chuckled darkly and slipped into the room quietly. Chris softly followed behind looking at Eric sleeping in his bed. She smiled wickedly and gleefully. Eric was going to get so mad at her, she could hardly wait.

The wheels in Chris's head were turning. She lightly ran downstairs and threw open the pantry in the kitchen. She pulled out the plastic wrap and ran back up to Eric's room. She covered the door with a nice thick coat of plastic wrap, keeping careful attention on how the wrap was laying. She wanted to keep every wrinkle out that was possible so Eric wouldn't catch it. Chris did the same to her dad's bedroom door before Maurice snatched the plastic wrap and ran into the bathroom. Chris giggled and ran back downstairs.

She dumped a little bleach into her dad's work clothes wash and hid Eric's clothes behind the washer and dryer. Next she took the quart of ice cream in the freezer and put it in the cupboard. She went back upstairs and found Maurice cutting holes into all of Eric's socks.

"Ya done babe?"

"Yep, let's go."

The both of them slid down into the shadow and when they had floated to the bottom they started to laugh.

"I can't wait until Eric calls! He's going to be so pissed!"

"Yeah, he's gonna be steamed for sure."

The two of them walked off into the underworld in a random direction, Maurice with his hand wrapped tightly around Chris, Chris with her head on his shoulder.

"You know, I've never been on a date like this before; but, I think it's my favorite out of all of them."

Maurice pulled them even closer together, "I'm glad."

Maurice stopped as an idea came to him. He turned to Chris and grinned down at her.

"What? Ah!"

Maurice picked up Chris bridal style and swung her around a few times before dropping her gently to the ground and tickling her.

"Maurice, stop! I can't take it, stop!"

Maurice just grinned and shook his head, "can't do it babe. You are just too adorable like this!"

Chris continued to laugh until she was pink in the face. When she started to wheeze Maurice relented and sat back allowing her to sit up and breathe again. Chris sat with a smile on her face; panting.

"For that, you will receive no mercy."

"Receive no mercy while you do what? Kill me with your good looks," Maurice asked mockingly.

Chris crept up to Maurice and Maurice suddenly flustered and panicked backed up into a box tower. Cornered Maurice watched as Chris slowly and seductively crept up to him and sat comfortably in his lap. Maurice's sucked in a breath and then quickly let it out as Chris leaned her face down to his.

"Do this." Chris feeling no insecurities as she did this smashed their lips together in a passionate kiss. Maurice began to purr again as one arm wrapped around her waist and the other tangled into her hair. Maurice cut the rubber band holding her hair in place with his claw and her hair shrouded them like a veil. Maurice eagerly tangled his fingers into her long brown hair. He moved his lips against hers hungrily and Chris sank into the kiss and fell on top of his chest giving in completely.

Chris, realizing Maurice was winning, wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss further. She was still very inexperienced but she gently ran her tongue over his lower lip. Maurice growled sending a pleasant shock through her. When Maurice ran his tongue over her lower lip she completely melted and let him win. If this was she got she would let him win happily. Chris gently opened her mouth open a little wider and he slipped his tongue into her mouth.

Chris moaned softly and ran her hand through his Mohawk as he gently stroked her tongue with is. Maurice cut Chris's enjoyment short as he pulled away and she softly whined. Maurice grinned as he looked at her lips that were swollen and her flustered pink face which he thought looked so cute.

"I don't know babe, if that's the kind of punishment you give, I might have to break the rules and get you mad more often."

Chris just smiled sheepishly. Maurice walked her home and they made it with a few minutes to spare.

"Same time tomorrow night?"

"Same time," Chris said with a smile.

Maurice suddenly looked sad. He looked up at Chris with a puppy like stare and said, "I'll miss you."

Chris laughed and ran back down the stairs and gave him a bear hug.

"Don't be sad I'll be back. I promise."

Chris gave him a quick kiss then ran up through the shadow under bed. Maurice looked up at the spot she had disappeared through and sighed happily before walking off to his apartment to catch up on sleep. The monster called Amber had watched the couple from Boy's room above. She had unnatural bleached blonde hair, unnatural blue eyes, and she was wearing expensive clothing that most humans couldn't afford to wear. Her blue eyes flamed with jealousy at the happy couple. Why did that little dishrag get attention and care like that when she was here?

Maurice wasn't exactly the best looking monster but if he could adore her like he adored that little human then she wanted him. After all, she reasoned that as soon as Maurice laid eyes on her and knew she was the most powerful monster in the underworld, he would forget all about that stupid little hag. Even if he didn't at first, she would make him see. She deserved the best after all, and no one says no to Amber.

_**A/N- Villain! Yes, I know that whole girl try's to get guy away from the girl he really loves but girl he really loves finds them in a suggestive position and leaves him in heartbreak, blah, blah, blah, been done. But I will be putting a slight twist on things so it won't be the exact same thing. I made Amber that popular girl because Boy was a preppy boy so I figured what the heck, why not? Hope you liked this chapter.**_


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way. I only own the current plot and Chris.**

**A/N- This chapter is dedicated to **Angelic Aramina. **Their reviews are so nice and they give me the drive to write more, so this one is for you.**

Chris, to her annoyance, had to go to school the next day. It seemed torture for her because during the whole school day her mind would wander to Maurice, the fun they would have tonight, the way Maurice kissed her…

_WHAM!_

The whole class gasped and turned to see Mr. Perkins the calculus teacher glaring down at Chris, a ruler pointed down at her desk with the end piece shattered from the impact on the desk. Chris gulped and looked up into the red face of Mr. Perkins.

"In _dreamland_ miss Stephenson?"

Chris sighed. Mr. Perkins was the last teacher she wanted to piss off today. He was one of those teachers that had been around since school began. Mr. Perkins believed that school was for learning only and a student should have no electives, or free time, or lunch, and should do nothing but studying while on school campus.

"I'm sorry sir; I won't disrupt your class again. My head was just wandering for a minute, but I'll be sure to keep it on the lesson."

Mr. Perkins nodded with a grunt and went back to the board. Chris learned that if you told a teacher what they wanted to hear they went easier on you. Chris slumped in her seat and laid her head on her desk and stared at the mathematic gibberish written on the board. When school finally ended she ran for the bike rails and pedaled as fast as she could back home. She borrowed her mother's old racing bike since hers had a horrible flat tire.

She parked it into the garage shut the garage door then ran inside. Brian was zoned out on the couch a coke in his hand when Chris walked in. He was watching some Japanese anime that made no sense even with the subtitles.

"Hey Bri, what are you doing?"

Brian just stared blankly at the television.

"Bri," Chris shouted waving her hands in the air.

Brian jumped in the couch and nearly dropped his coke but saved it just before it hit the floor.

"Hey Sis, I didn't hear you come in. How was school?"

"Ah, you know the usual."

Brian chuckled, "Boring beyond all reason."

Chris nodded, "Yep."

The phone rang and Brian sighed irritably and stood up. "I'll get it."

Chris listened closely as Brian talked on the phone.

"What? I didn't- I have no idea… did you look everywhere… MY FAULT! I didn't even know about- I haven't seen Maurice in over three years! Fine… yeah I'll ask her…bye."

The Phone was slammed onto the receiver and Chris winced as Brian angrily stomped into the living room. Chris winced even more when Brian glared at her angrily and even a little bit hurt.

"Chris… have you been hanging out with Maurice again?"

Chris looked on the ground guiltily as she heard the sadness and betrayal in his voice. Chris wouldn't lie to him though.

"Yes I have."

"Chris how could you! He's my best friend too and you didn't even bother to tell me that we could see him again?"

"Brian…it's different now."

"_Different," _Chris could hear the venom in his voice "Oh so I'm just that kid he used to know now right? I didn't mean anything too him?"

"That's not true! I was going to tell you on FRIDAY! We just wanted to wait to tell you!"

"Tell me what, it better be good because I just got yelled at by Eric for playing pranks on him."

Chris looked up with a blank face of anger, "Remember that guy I told you about?"

Brian shoulders slumped and he looked at Chris with shocked realization.

"I was going to wait to tell you so we could spend a little time alone together… I'm sorry you got yelled at."

"My best friend and my sister," Brian repeated shocked "my best friend and my sister!"

Brian laughed and hugged Chris tight.

"Are you really that upset?"

"Upset? What do you mean upset? This is great!"

"I knew that he liked you," Brian added slyly.

"Shut up." Chris mumbled under her breath.

"Man, Chris this…this is awesome! We can all hang out again and were like a family."

"Brian," Chris shouted indignantly "It's not like we're getting married!"

"Not yet." Brian said with a laugh.

Brian stopped and his smile slowly faded away into a serious questioning face, "Wait…so… does this mean you're going to be a monster?"

Chris stopped and her face slumped in thought. She had been so happy she hadn't thought about that. She was a human and humans were mortal while Maurice lived forever. She'd be gone and Maurice would be alone again. The thought made her extremely sad; but, to give up her humanity.

"I-I don't know. I had been so overcome with happiness when Maurice said he liked me that… I didn't think about it."

"Hey," Brian said wrapping an arm around her shoulder "No matter what you choose to be human or monster, you will always be my big sister."

Chris smiled and hugged Brian. "What about you Brian? You love Kirsten and she and Eric definitely don't want to be a monsters and I would never force them into it. But if I'm a monster you, Eric, Kirsten, Todd, everyone will get old and die and Maurice and I will live forever."

"Then Maurice better take good care of you for me when I'm gone."

Chris hugged Brian a little tighter. "Not right now. I'm not gonna be a monster right now but…when I'm older maybe 18 or 20 then I'll turn into a monster."

Brian smiled, "Sounds like a plan... Were you the one who cut the holes in the socks or hid and bleached the clothes?"

Chris laughed and told Brian of what Maurice and she had been doing over the last 2 days.

"Did you guys kiss?"

Chris didn't answer but the deep blush on her cheeks gave her away. Brian cracked up and laughed.

"How was it like?"

"What?"

Brian rolled his eyes, "is Maurice a good kisser."

"I-I don't know! I've never had a kiss before so he's the only thing I have as a comparison. But… it was nice."

Brian laughed then looked over at the clock. "Well you better be going your _boyfriend _is probably waiting for you."

"But I thought you wanted to-"

"Nah, I can wait until Friday. Bedside's I don't want to see Maurice and you sucking each other's face off."

Brian cringed and Chris just giggled, "Okay whatever you say."

Brian watched with a small smile as Chris ran upstairs. Chris eagerly lifted her bed off the ground and fell into the underworld. When she landed she ran for Maurice's apartment. It took Chris a little while longer to find it than when Maurice had shown her because she had only seen it once; but, when she found the apartment with 501 written on it she sighed in relief. She didn't bother knocking since she knew that Maurice wouldn't mind, and she walked right in. The front room was empty so she figured that he was still sleeping.

She walked up to the bedroom door and decided to knock on that door in case Maurice slept in the nude. Something she didn't want to see…yet.

"Come in."

Chris frowned slightly but walked in expecting to find Maurice sprawled over the bed but instead a woman was smiling at her, sitting with her legs crossed on the edge of the bed.

"Who are you," Chris asked guardedly.

"That's not important."

"Where's Maurice?"

"He's not here and he's not coming back."

She was still smiling that pearly white smile but it made Chris sick rather than feel welcome.

"What have you done with him?"

She gave Chris a challenging look that made Chris's skin crawl.

"I simply took what was rightfully mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"I took him."

Chris's whole body froze and that smile and eyes seemed to be challenging her to break out in a jealous fit and start attacking her.

"What made you think that you had the right to do that?"

She stood up on 10 inch heels, which made Chris, stare in awe at how her ankles weren't broken, and walked over to her. She loomed over Chris, a sick sneer on her face.

"I'm most the beautiful and the most powerful. I'm the best in every way; any man would crawl on his knees over burning coals for me. I saw you two, the way he practically worships you, I want that. I want and deserve that kind of adoration. So, I simply took him."

Chris could feel her heart breaking. Maurice, her poor Maurice was being held by this creature.

"He put up a fight, tried to resist at first but it just made me want him more. Loyalty is so hard to come by and he is loyal, just to the wrong person. However, he'll realize that I can please him more than you ever could."

Chris could feel: anger, jealousy, indignity all burning in her gut. How dare her!

"You don't get it do you. Maurice never _worshipped_ me. He loved me, and I love him. You can't change that! It doesn't matter if you're more beautiful than me, he loves me not you."

The woman was still for a moment the only movement the clicking of one of her red heels on the floor.

"Oh really. Did he ever say he loved you?"

Chris went to retort but froze when she realized the truth. They hadn't said I love you. But, that didn't mean they didn't care about each other.

"He didn't have to say it."

The girl laughed sardonically. "Oh, _you_ just don't get it. The person with the power always gets what they want. Bedside's even if he does _love_ you there's more than one way to break in a dog. Well, bye Chris. If I were you I'd get back up to the surface world. There's nothing left for you here."

The woman walked by Chris and the sound of the front door shutting was the only sound. Chris let silent tears of heartbreak fall from her eyes. Inside her heart she knew Maurice loved her but, there was that female part of her that felt intimidated by that woman. She could never compare to her…what if Maurice saw her and forgot all about her. Chris with a heavy head headed for the door. Until her foot hit the leg of the bed and a piece of paper hit the ground.

Chrissi,

Don't you worry your pretty little head over me babe. The girl came earlier and tried to convince me to leave you for her. I ran out to write this letter and ran back to put it here so you could read this. If you are reading this it means that she's got me and she's taken me to Boy's room. Chrissi, babe, know that no matter what I love you and ONLY you. I won't give in to her, but don't come after me! This girl means business and I don't want you to get hurt! Don't worry about me I'll figure a way out and be back to you in a wink.

Love, your bud and boyfriend,

Maurice

Chris crumpled the note as she gripped it in her fist and ran for home. She went through the shadow and ran through the house searching for Brian. She found him in the kitchen eating of bowl of cereal.

Brian noticed her and smiled, "Hey that was fast. Did you-"

"Brian…Maurice…he's…in trouble."

Brian smile disappeared and he threw the bowl carelessly into the sink before rushing to her side.

"Chris what's wrong?"

Chris lifted the crumpled note, still panting, to Brian and Brian uncurled it and read it eagerly.

"Who's this girl?"

"She's the new ruler of the underworld. She's really vain like Boy was. She says that because she's the prettiest and most powerful she deserves the best. She must have seen me and Maurice when we were walking through the underworld and got jealous. She says that she wants to be adored by Maurice like Maurice does with me. But, she's insane Brian! She wants him to worship her like she's god and she talked about him like he was just an object! We have to save him!"

"You got that right. But how are we going to do that? We barely have any flashlights?"

"What about Kirsten and Todd?"

"They're not here this week. They're taking that school trip to Europe this week."

"Ugh! Right when we need them! How about Mr. Finn's light closet? Do you still have the key?"

Brian shook his head in remorse.

Chris fell onto the couch like a doll. "What are we going to do now?"

Brian leaned on the table looking at a depressed Chris before an idea popped into his head.

"You're in band."

"So?"

"So, your band has that huge spotlight, like the one that signals Batman! Do you know how bright those things are? One hit and she'll be gone."

Chris looked up excitedly and happily at Brian. The two of them grabbed their shades and Chris grabbed the metal bat just in case. Chris grabbed Brian's hand and lifted the bed off the ground and the two of them jumped into the underworld to save Maurice.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in anyway except for the current plot, Amber, Chris, and the other random characters like the teachers, and the junkyard owner.**

Brian, having been away from the underworld for so long, fell onto the ground. Chris winced above him as he hit the ground and slowly floated down to his side. Brian looked around a nostalgic smile pulling at his face.

"It hasn't changed. Too bad I had to see it again in this situation. Come on."

"Wait," Chris exclaimed holding her arm out to stop Brian "Something's wrong here."

"Where is everybody?"

Chris was right. The entire underworld was silent, not a sound. Even the arcade that you could hear if there was not a single monster out on the street was silent and nothing made a sound.

"I don't know Chris, but we're wasting time that Maurice might not have. Come on."

Chris relented and ran after Brian to her band room. The two stuck their head under the nurse bed and quietly slipped out from under the cot. They snuck across the campus like spies hiding behind walls and doors every so often to avoid a janitor. Soon they got to the band room door and found an ancient lock on it.

"OH," Brian whispered angrily "now what?"

Chris reached into her pocket and pulled out the key. She gently pushed the key into the lock and turned it. The lock popped and thudded to the ground. The two stared at it amazed.

"It must be a skeleton key."

"Thank you hermit," Brian mumbled happily. The two of them took the dust cover off the spotlight and began to push it towards the door.

"Wait Bri," Chris said "there's no way that we are going to get this thing all the way to the nurses' office."

"How are we going to get it there then?"

Chris thought for a moment then ran over to an unlocked cupboard and took out a fire blanket. She made a small bed out of 6 chairs sitting towards each other then she laid the blanket over it. She pushed her hand under the makeshift bed's shadow and her hand went through. She looked back at Brian who was gazing at her with awe. She tried making it float but it fell apart with loud clanks. The two waiting silently for someone to come but after a few moments no one did. They sighed relieved and Chris put it back together this time tying the chairs together with the stereo cables.

She tried it again and smiled when the makeshift bed floated above their heads. Chris and Brian pushed the spotlight near the shadow and then with a breath jumped into the shadow holding it. It still fell to the ground but not as hard as it could have landed. The two of them brushed themselves then pushed the spotlight towards Boy's room. This spotlight was battery operated and Chris's teacher charged it every night so Chris knew that it would have enough power. At the foot of the Master Staircase the two looked up the long way up then started on their way. When they had finally made it up to the doors the doors swung open like they did when they had toasted Boy.

The two walked in confidently knowing that this would be quick and easy. Amber hadn't changed the room much, the only difference was that everything had been painted neon pink a color that Chris detested. The stage was cut off from view by a red theater curtain. Chris and Brian pulled the spotlight over the wooden boards and as soon as they did the curtain was pulled back. Amber sat on a huge England styled throne wearing an elegant red evening dress.

"Your back and you brought more vermin with you." The words were said like she had acid on her tongue; venomous and annoyed.

"I brought my friend."

Brian nodded.

"I told you to stay away," Amber yelled like a toddler not getting what she wanted, "why did you come back?!"

"I came back for Maurice."

"Yeah you blonde bimbo, we want Maurice! You better give him up because we've got a spotlight here that could turn your face to goo in five seconds flat! Cough him up!"

Brian waited for a response close to surrender. All he received was a deep dark chuckle.

"Did you check your battery before you came here?"

Chris's eyes widened and she ran to the back of the spotlight and opened the battery compartment. Nothing. It was empty. Chris looked up to see Amber holding the battery with a sadistic smile on her face. She crushed the battery with her bare hand and lapped up the battery juice before throwing the battery husk behind her shoulder.

"Not so tough now are you?"

"We'll get the other monsters to help us and we'll all overthrow you!"

Amber just shook her head as if Chris was a two year old. "Didn't you pay attention while you were walking here? They are all asleep. No one can help you."

"How did you?"

"Just some simple sleeping magic. The most basic magic we monsters have."

"I don't care! We are still going to take you down!"

Amber just smiled wickedly. "Oh really?"

Brian ran towards her angrily and Chris held her hand out to try and stop him. Chris wasn't fast enough and he ran up to her practically growling with anger. Brian raised a fisted hand and when he was about to throw the punch Amber pushed him away into the wall. Chris looked amazed and frightened as Brian flew all the way from her to the doors. He hit the door and slid to the ground motionless.

"Stupid boy," Amber murmured to herself checking her nails to make sure they weren't damaged.

Chris was at Brian's side in a matter of seconds she tried to shake him awake but it was clear she was out cold.

"You monster!"

Chris glared with concentrated hate up at Amber who gazed back as if she was watching a comedy show.

"What did you expect? I am a monster get used to it."

Chris stood defiantly. She had had it up to here with this dumb blonde! She was not going to give up; if she was going down she was going down fighting.

"You're despicable, you are a spoiled brat who is greedy and jealous and you have no heart!"

Her face didn't change but her heel began to click on the floor. That's when it hit Chris. That was Amber's weakness. She was like a bully. She hurt others to make herself feel better but when mocked and teased she backed down. She looked at the floor then looked back at Amber with a twinkle in her eye. Chris reached behind her and pulled out the rusted metal bat.

"You see this?"

Amber looked at it with disgust. "Yes a see a piece of garbage."

"This is what you look like on the inside! Ugly, nasty, disgusting. You may be beautiful on the outside but you are beastly on the inside. No one will ever give you the love you want because your heart is as ugly as this bat."

Amber looked horrified at the bat then took out a compact mirror. She looked at her features in the mirror then screamed in horror. Chris slowly stepped back as Amber began to change. It started with the hand holding the mirror. Slowly her skin started to clump together and harden then broke out in rust. Once her whole hand turned into rusted metal it crept up her arm like a snake. Soon her entire body was rusting metal. Amber let out one more scream of horror before her face slowly turned into rusting metal. Everything was quiet. The only thing left of Amber was a rusting metal statue.

Chris slowly walked up to her and shook her head.

"If you're ugly on the inside, you're ugly on the outside."

Chris listened as the underworld slowly came to life, the arcade machines whirring to life, the chatter of monsters below, and a groan from behind one of the two curtains. Chris ran over to the one on the right and found Maurice stretching in a chair like he had woken up from a nap.

"Maurice! Oh, Maurice I'm so glad you're okay!"

Chris straddled Maurice and hugged him tightly.

"Hey Chrissi," He sat up aware and lifted her onto her feet holding onto her shoulders, "are you hurt? Are you okay?"

Chris wrapped her arms around his head and gently kissed him.

"I'm fine big guy. Are you okay?"

Maurice smiled and hugged her tightly, "I'm fine now that you're here."

The two stood in each other's embrace before Chris looked up at him and gripped his hand and pulled him over to Amber. Maurice flinched with a grimace at the scene. He walked over to her and gently knocked on her head. A metallic echo sounded.

Maurice looked at Chris with a grimace.

"What did you do to her?"

"I told what she looked like on the inside. Then she became what she really was; ugly."

Maurice grinned, "Chrissi, you little genius you."

"How am I a genius?"

Maurice lolled his head then wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Monster magic is almost a literal thing babe. It's almost like when Leprechauns grant you three wishes. Whatever you wish for you get. So when you told Amber what she really looked like on the inside the monster magic took effect. You made her realize that inside she was as ugly as rusting metal, when she realized that her magic turned her into…that."

Chris nodded with understanding, "I thought Genie's granted wishes?"

"They don't exist."

"Oh, okay then," Chris said with a weird look on her face.

Chris smiled and turned to Maurice wrapping her hands around his neck. Maurice wrapped his arms around her waist. The gently pressed their foreheads together and Chris softly smiled.

"I'm just happy you're safe."

"And I'm all yours Chrissi."

"Maurice…"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

Maurice stepped back then a joy filled grin lit his face. He picked her up and twirled her around before dipping her with one of her legs in his hand.

"I love you too Chrissi. Forever?"

"Forever," Chris finalized.

Maurice softly pressed his lips to hers in a short but loving kiss. Chris chuckled and held onto him by his neck.

"Maurice, baby, could you lift me up now. I'm starting to get light headed," Chris said with a chuckle.

Maurice gently placed her on her feet then hugged her. Maurice squints his eyes at the door then turned to Chris.

"Say, is that Brian taking a nap against the door?"

"Brian!"

Chris sped towards the doors leaving Maurice confused. Maurice ran after her and kneeled next to a still passed out Brian.

"Maurice he's not waking up! Maurice he's breathing but he's not waking up! Oh, this is my fault."

"That's Brian?"

"Yeah, I got him to come and help me rescue you. Amber pushed his buttons and he went to punch her; but, he wasn't quick enough and Amber threw him into the wall."

"Ouch… He's really grown."

"Maurice, help!"

"Okay, okay…um…cover your ears."

Chris covered her ears and Maurice took a huge breath before he screamed right into Brian's ear. Brian's eyes flew open and he screamed.

Brian jumped to his feet and rubbed his ears.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Brian," Chris cried latching onto Brian "you're okay."

"Yeah, but my ears aren't."

Maurice laughed and gave Brian a nice pat on the back.

"Nice to have back bud."

Brian looked at Maurice like he was looking at an old photo.

"is it really you?"

"I think it's me," Maurice said turning around a few times.

Brian hugged Maurice and Maurice stiffened.

"I missed you pal."

Maurice hugged back, "I missed you too bud."

Chris smiled before making a box with her hands, "aw, it's a Kodiak moment."

"I'd love to see Kirsten's and Todd's face when I tell them that you two are dating."

Chris shut up immediately and Brian and Maurice laughed. Maurice looked at Brian's watch and his eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets.

"Holy shit! I got to get you guy's home we only got 2 minutes!"

"Home and the school are too far! We'll never make it," Chris said sadly.

"Your brothers! It's only a minute away," Maurice exclaimed.

The three of them bolted out of Boy's room and headed for Eric's. They only had 30 seconds when they were at the top of the stairwell. Maurice quickly lifted Brian through then lifted Chris through. It seemed that they were home free until Chris got stuck in the shadow from the waist down.

"B-Brian, I'm stuck." Brian tried pulling her but it wasn't working.

"Maurice I can't do it! The shadow's too tight!" Maurice tried pushing her through but she only went through to her knees.

Brian seeing there was only 15 second left kicked Eric out of bed.

"Hey what's the big idea?"

"Eric, help!"

Eric seeing his sister stuck in the shadow grabbed one of her arms and pulled as hard as he could.

"Maurice! I-I can't its cutting my legs!"

"Come on babe! You gotta pull yourself through!"

Maurice in a final effort pushed as hard he could and Chris tumbled into Brian and Eric with a pop. The four of them breathed a sigh of relief now that Chris was okay. Maurice sat on the ground calming himself then with one final smile up at the shadow went off to his house. The three siblings sat panting in Eric's room. The three looked at one another then started to laugh.

"You okay Chris?"

"Yeah guy's I'm fine," Chris said.

Chris looked down at her foot and gasped. From the ankle down the skin had turned a metallic unnatural pale and her foot had torn through her sneaker. Her toe nails were an assortment of colors and shone in the early morning sunlight. Brian and Eric looked down horrified at her foot.

"It's a monster foot."


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I don't own the movie or the comic book. All characters and plot's go to their rightful owners.**

**A/N- The next chapters will lead up to Chris becoming a monster. This chapter and the next one will be based on the comic books. I will only take two comic plots because the other ones use Boy and Snick and I want them to stay dead. R&R and enjoy. **

**First Person POV-**

It has been a month since the incident with Amber and life has been quiet. Maurice takes me down into the underworld every night or every half a night, Maurice is worrying about my sleep so he usually only takes me down for half a night. Maurice has become a huge part in my life. He is honestly the best boyfriend that I could have asked for. He takes me on a fun filled ride every night, makes me laugh; but, he is also amazingly sweet, and supportive. But the greatest thing about Maurice is that he respects my space. He understands that we don't have to be together every second of the night when were together and it makes the relationship that much sweeter.

Our relationship is gradually becoming more serious. Not really serious but it's slowly creeping there. With every kiss we explore each other a little more. But at the same time we always know when to stop. It's a perfect relationship, Maurice knows me better than I think my own mother knows me. Not as much as Brian but he's close. We had been worried about my foot at first. Worried that if I stepped out into the sunlight it would burn and disappear or it would turn into clothes. But it didn't inhibit me at all; I just had to wear about 5 pairs of socks over my feet in my sneakers.

I reminisce while the rest of homeroom does their homework. I'm thinking about a small argument Maurice and Brian had the other night that was extremely funny when something hits the back of my head. I didn't even have to look back to know who had hit me. I grab my very heavy calculus book and prepare myself to slam it down. I hear sniggering as my back tensed and I take my chance to slam my textbook down on Matt's head.

The wham echo's through the room and all the kids look up from their work to stare at us. The blonde haired bully Matt turns angrily to me and I sit back with a satisfied smirk on my face.

"You're dead meat Chris Stephenson!"

He takes me by surprise as he wraps his meaty hands around my throat. I guess that Matt wasn't below hitting a girl.

"I'm gonna rip your head off!"

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try!"

I could hear an uh-oh behind me as Matt grabbed me and we hit the floor in a tangle. He pinned my legs down with his own and snickered above me.

"Get off of me! Let me up Matt!"

"My little brother just_ loves_ when I do this," Matt said as he snorted.

I felt my eyes widen, "No, you're not going to-"

Matt spit a huge amount of spit towards me and I acted quickly. I raised my hand just in time to catch the spit with my hand.

"Eat spit Matt!"

I shoved the spit into his face and he stumbled backwards onto the floor. I stood up and wiped my hand off disgusted onto my shorts. Matt had stumbled onto his feet and was clumsily walking towards me. I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to my eye level.

"Not so tough now, are you?"

"**Ugh! **You're making a big mistake. I ain't going to forget this," Matt growled.

"You can say that again," I said with a soft growl of my own.

"**You, again!"**

"Huh?" I felt a hand pull at my arm and I came face to face with the principle; red faced and angry.

"I have waited a long time for this, Miss Stephenson. You just dug your own Grave. You've gotten yourself expelled!"

Oh, I forgot to mention that ever since we rusted Amber I've been a lot more rebellious. Not like a bad girl breaking federal law, but I definitely am not against a fight anymore.

"It wasn't me, Mr. Robert honest. I didn't start it," I tried to reason as he dragged me by my arm.

"The bad eggs always cause their own downfall, Miss Stephenson. And don't even try to use your pathetic sympathy tactic."

Next thing I knew I was in the dean's office with all the councilors seated in front of me like a jury about to decide my sentence.

"Well Miss Stephenson, Your grades are very good but this is the third time this month you have gotten into a fight. What do you have to say?"

"Yes Miss Stephenson," Mr. Roberts asked snidely "tell us."

"Well, I know that my record hasn't been very good as of late. But, I'm under a lot of stress here. Being a young teen today is harder than it looks. I promise that I will never do it again."

I had tried to make my voice as innocent as I could and I looked up genuinely honest as I promised to never again get in a fight.

The councilor that had spoken before sighed, "Chris, we know that under all that energy is a well-meaning young lady. But…"

I walked out of that building down in the dumps. Brian was waiting at the corner for me like always but Kirsten was standing beside him staring at me pityingly.

"How'd it go," Brian asked optimistically.

"They didn't buy it. I have to see a shrink. They won't let me back into school until I've been _observed_."

"Well," Kirsten suggested, "can't you just transfer to another school? You've got the grades."

"All the other schools are too far away, and the privates are too expensive."

"They think you're crazy? That's not fair! When do you go?"

I looked at Brian dreading and answered, "Tonight. You want to help me pack Bri?"

"You aren't Crazy! You or Brian, you're just a little rebellious. So you guys don't follow the rules every once in a while, big deal! Just be yourself Chris."

"You're probably right Kirsten. Creeps like Robert probably are threatened by people like me and Brian. We make his job harder."

"Right, tell them how it is. They're doctors; they have to be hip to kids."

"Your right Kirsten, I couldn't be crazy. You guys would have told me by now. I'll be in and out in a flash. Man, won't Mr. Robert be miffed to see me back in class so soon."

The three of us laughed as we walked home. I packed and took a provided bus to the facility. It was a huge ominous building: big, gray, and complete with looming gray storm clouds behind it. They took me through the main hallway into an office looking part of the building. A lady in a white uniform took my luggage and walked off to put it in my room. The other man dressed in a similar white outfit led me to a door with Mr. Derwin printed on it with big black letters.

I walked in and sat down in the chair and held back a grimace as I looked at my shrink. He was an old guy in his late 40's, had a bunch of toilet paper stuck to his nicks on his chin, and his short hair was parted in a nerd style, and hung limply over his forehead.

"Hello, Chris. My name is Mr. Sawyer but you can call me Derwin. Please make yourself comfortable. I can see we are going to be great friends. You know, I used to be a lot like you when I was your age. Would you like some milk and cookies?"

I politely turned him down but in my head I was saying** oh-my-god.**

A few minutes later he escorted me into a different room with the normal patient couch and the chair beside it. I laid down long ways on the couch and Derwin came and sat down beside me. He took out the notebook and a pencil and got comfortable in his chair.

"You're files tell me that you're having a hard time fitting in with kids your age, that you're not willing to work productively with **all** your peers. Is this true?"

"Of course it is. Derwin, I can hardly believe that you were ever a kid and if you were I don't think you ever took advantage of it. These are my prime years and I plan and taking advantage of them. When's the last time you did something crazy?"

Derwin looked uncomfortable and I sat back sighing.

"I'm here to help you Chris. I want to try hypnosis. Please focus on the wheel on the wall in front of you and relax."

I looked skeptically into the swirled wheel while Derwin took out a tape recorder.

"I'm going to tape everything you say so that you can hear it later."

The wheel began to spin and I got this weird feeling.

"Relax and tell me what you see, don't be frightened. Nothing can hurt you."

The next part I can't remember to well but I know what I said from listening to the recording.

"I-It's dark. Something's moving in the corner. Quick! Turn on the light! It's a monster from under my bed! Wait! Stop, it's alright, it's just Maurice. He's my best friend and my boyfriend. My brother Brian and I followed him under the bed and he showed me his world and introduced me to all the other monsters. Maurice and the other monsters only come out at night, because any light turns them into clothes. Like camouflage and sunlight will kill them. The monsters play pranks on the kids of the world and get them into trouble. It makes them tough; happens to all kids. My Maurice is the best; he's the king of monstering. Oh no! It's a Snick and Boy. They kidnapped me and Eric so Brian and me would stay and become monsters! I have to figure a way to get Eric and Brian and get out before sunrise!"

"What happened," Mr. Derwin asked intrigued.

"I got out with a little help from Brian and Maurice. We came back and burned Snick and Boy with our light guns. It was awful."

Derwin's pen wrote furiously across the notepad.

"Chris, tell me more about the world under the bed and Maurice."

"I didn't see Maurice for another three years and I missed him a lot. I kept having nightmares about horrible things happening to him and I wasn't there to save him. One day I decided to try to go back under the bed. I tried but my hand wouldn't go through the shadow. I thought I would never see him again. But then Maurice came and got me and he took me to **Paris!** He took me in a gondolier onto a beautiful lake and it was there that I realized that I really liked Maurice…more than just a friend. He admitted that he liked me too and we had our first kiss on the lake."

"What happened next?"

"We got together but then another monster named Amber took over the underworld and took Maurice because she was jealous of us. Brian and I went into the underworld to save him and we destroyed her by turning her into a rust statue."

"Rust statue?"

"She was beautiful but she was horrible and ugly on the inside. I told her and she realized the truth and her monster magic turned her into a rust statue. Maurice was okay and I told him I loved him as soon as I saw him because I realized that if this kept up I might not be able to tell him again. He told me that he loved me too and we kissed again."

I sigh and Derwin coughs uncomfortably.

"What happened after that?"

"We only had three minutes to get home! We barely made it, Brian got up but I got stuck halfway down."

I grabbed by foot and screamed, "My foot! It's turning into a monster foot! I'm turning into a monster!"

"Chris! I want you to wake up now! Wake up!"

I had no chance after that. Derwin gave me a permanent room and I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling while my roommate until light's out rambles on about something.

"Derwin says that I'm crazy, but I know that I'm just maladjusted."

I turned to king and said gently, "King, no offense, but you really know how to kill a party."

Out from under the bed Maurice comes and stands at the side of my bed. His trademark grin on his face while his eyes were covered by his trademark shades.

"Did someone say 'party'?"

Maurice wrapped and arm around my shoulder but I brushed it away and turned my back on him.

"Go away Maurice. Leave me alone."

"Now," Maurice said with false hurt "is that anyway to talk to your man like that?"

Maurice grinned and wrapped his arms around me. I turned my head to glare at him and tried to struggle until Maurice gently pressed our lips together. Maurice, damn him, he knew me so well. He knew exactly what would calm me down, even if I was pissed off. Maurice gently moved his lips against mine at an angle that made my head spin. His lips left mine and went to my neck, peppering feather like kisses across the sensitive skin of my neck. I gently gripped his shoulders and his tongue started to lightly trace patters over the pulse between my neck and shoulders.

"Maurice."

I had meant for it to come out as an annoyed, warning growl; but, it came out as a soft encouraging moan. I felt his grin on my skin and he began to purr happily and started to lightly suck at a certain spot on the side of my neck that for some reason was super sensitive.

I was just barely hanging off that diving board about ready to give in to gravity completely when Maurice whispered, "Cool pad by the way baby…could use some color."

He gently nibbled and nipped my ear but hearing those words my anger came back at full speed. I pushed him away angrily and he sat back confused and hurt.

"Maybe your blind, maybe, you didn't notice that I'm in a **Looney bin!**"

I walked up and leaned in real close to Maurice's face and not in a romantic way.

"Don't you get it? I'm done for! They are going to kick me out of school because I don't fit in with all the other jerks. And-and- It's all **YOUR FAULT**!"

Maurice was taken aback.

"My fault?!"

I sat down immediately feeling bad but was too angry too apologize.

"I told the therapist about you, us, and the other monsters. It's all on tape. Every word."

Now Maurice looked hurt and angry.

Maurice pulled me to my feet and grabbed my shoulders roughly, "You told and _adult_ about us…and us! What are you **crazy**?"

I grabbed Maurice by his new leather vest, which was really just a leather jacket with the sleeves cut off, and shouted, "I didn't mean to! I was hypnotized!"

Before either one of us could say another word King interjected with, "Because I think All-Star Wrestling is real and I'm the champ, Derwin thinks I'm crazy. I'm maladjusted. He's crazy."

Maurice's face lit up and he turned to me with a grin, "That's it Chrissi!"

I looked at the two of them confused, "What?! That I should start believing in all-star wrestling?"

Maurice shook his head and kissed the top of my head before leaning towards my face, "Chris, baby, get with it! This _Derwin_ thinks that you're crazy because you believe in monsters and say you're dating one, right? So…we'll make _him_ the crazy one!"

I looked at him with a lopsided smile, still wondering how we were going to pull this off.

"We're going to have to be very careful with how we do this. Adults are strictly forbidden down there, they're the atom bomb of monsters!"

All of the earlier anger was extinguished and I leaned on Maurice with my hand lying limply off his shoulder.

"Think we can pass him off if we put him in kids' clothes?"

Maurice grinned and pulled me into his chest his hands resting on the small of my back.

"If anybody asks, he's a big kid."


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I don't own the comic books or the movie. I only own Chris.**

A few minutes later Maurice and I are standing on either sides of Mr. Derwin bed watching him sleep. Maurice looks over him critically and comes up with a dumbfounded look when he's done.

"This guy has the authority to call my girl crazy? That's nuts!"

I looked at the ground before looking up at Maurice, "Maybe you should hide behind the door, or something."

"What? And miss all this fun? No way, baby."

Maurice pulled out two wooden clothes pins and grinned down and Derwin mischievously.

"This is one of my favorites," Maurice said as he clamped the clothes pins on Derwin's mouth and nose, "Wakes 'em up faster than cold water."

Just as Maurice said in less than 10 seconds Derwin's eyes flew open and he spits the clothes pin of his mouth and quickly takes the one off his nose.

"Who's there? What's going on?"

Maurice cleared his throat getting Derwin's attention.

"You, Derwin, have the honor of meeting Maurice," Maurice said with a hand on his chest.

He turned to me and pulled our sides together and looked down at me lovingly, "You know my baby here, of course."

Derwin covered his head with his blanket and started murmuring, "It's only my guilty subconscious. It's only my guilt subconscious. It's only-"

Maurice walked up annoyed to the bed and yanked the blanket of Derwin and leaned in close to his face.

"Look, pal, we don't have all night. We're here to show you that monsters are real. So, get in these clothes and get moving, o-kay?"

Maurice tossed a white sweater, a pair of red overalls, and a red and white cap at Derwin. He shakily took them while I went to the side of the bed.

"It isn't nice to call someone a liar, Derwin, is it?"

Maurice stood back with a proud look on his face. I could hear his voice in my head saying, "That's right babe, tell him what's what."

"N-No, I-I'm coming."

He slipped the clothes over his pajamas and stood beside us but kept a distance of about a foot and a half from Maurice.

"You're going to have the time of your life," I exclaimed excitedly.

"Yep, all your wildest dreams are about to come true! You're about to make the scientific discovery of the century!"

Maurice lifted the bed with ease and exclaimed, "After you."

"You wouldn't want to pass this up, would you?!"

Derwin walked into the shadow and we heard his scream as he fell into the underworld. I giggled and Maurice laughed.

"After you, Madame."

I gently curtsied and kissed him on the cheek before jumping feet first into the shadow. Maurice and I hit the ground about the same time and I had to stifle a laugh at the sight of Derwin lying on the ground rubbing his back. We helped him up and led him to the central square of the underworld where a bunch of monsters were hanging out. Derwin shrunk a little as he viewed all the different monsters running past us.

"Oh my," Derwin murmured.

"See, Derwin? This is what I told you about. It's all true."

"See? In five minutes, you could be anywhere in the world!"

Derwin looked up at a sign that said Tokyo with a big yellow arrow pointing right.

"This isn't possible! Tokyo? Not feasible!"

We led him into the food room where monsters were quickly stuffing themselves with junk food.

"Down here, you can do whatever you want," I exclaimed.

"No parents to make rules," Maurice added, "Total freedom. No right, no wrong, no sweat."

Next, we pulled him over to the Monster Ball field.

"See these guys? They're in charge of all those things that go bump in the night. It's their job to shake things up."

We walked around a little more and stopped in front of a purple, short, Cyclops monster.

"So how was your night?"

"Made a killing at the Murphy's, in Cleveland. Ten kids," Derwin's face went pale, "zero matching socks."

I couldn't help laugh there. Next we went over to Schmoog's booth.

"Who…err?"

"Him? Oh, that's Schmoog. He gives out all the addresses and info of the kids who'll get picked on each night."

Schmoog hands us a folder and we look inside to see we have to visit a kid named Kim. I look up carefully through the shadow then signal for the boys to come up.

"All clear."

"B-but this is Tokyo," Derwin whispered dumbfounded.

"Yep! Were here, just like that."

Maurice wrapped a hand around my shoulder and whispers, "We'd better get busy."

I nodded and went over to the kid lying in bed. Maurice pulled out the kids file and skimmed through it.

"Kid's file says that he beats up on his kid brother."

I shake my head disgusted, "That's despicable! I've been saving this one for ages."

I pull out a can of green hair die and start to spray it all over the kid's hair.

"I see. The monsters give children their due."

"Not exactly Derwin. We just keep 'em on their toes. Tomorrow he'll blame his brother and they'll have a nice, grueling brawl."

"And you can do things of this nature to anyone?"

"Why? You have someone special in mind," I asked slightly curious.

"Well one person…who you might also be interested in visiting. Mr. Robert was also my instructor when I was in school. He hasn't changed."

We went on our way off to Mr. Robert's house but we were finally stopped by two other monster. One was a Shrek looking one wearing a purple beanie with glowing yellow eyes and a button nose, the other was shirtless and a violent red pink color.

Maurice was a fast talker though and when we were confronted he simply replied, "Of course he's a kid! He's just bigger than most. Like me."

"Yeah, but your over two hundred years old!"

"Hey, you're as young as you feel. 'Scuse us, we have a child to torment."

Derwin was marveling the underworld as soon as we were away from the other monsters.

"Who would have thought that a world like this could have existed?"

I looked over at Derwin with the most serious face I could muster.

"This isn't all fun and games Derwin. If they had found out that you're a…_adult_, they would have cut off your nose. Or worse! This is serious business!"

We are now all standing around Mr. Roberts's bed. I look up at Derwin who was staring hatefully at Robert.

"Derwin, if you hate him. Why have you never told Roberts off?"

"Because I thought things were just as bland and boring as he said they were. But now…thanks to you I can do what I've always wanted to."

My eyes widened a little bit as Derwin took out a chainsaw and staring sawing at Roberts's hair. Maurice pulled me back a few feet keeping his arms tight around my stomach to hold me to his chest. I smiled at the concern and laid my head against his shoulder. As Derwin stopped he sank to the floor his eyes wide and a little bit of drool dripping down his mouth. Maurice slowly removed his arms from my waist but didn't leave my side without giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, and went to stand by Derwin.

"Finished? Got it all out of your system?"

"Uh huh, uh huh."

I leaned close to Maurice and whispered, "Maurice, I think its working."

"But what if I wake up tomorrow and it was all just a dream."

"Relax, it isn't."

Maurice scooped up a pile of Mr. Roberts's hair and held it out to Derwin.

"Here take this and tomorrow when you wake up you'll know it really happened."

Derwin took it and jumped in the air with a loud, "Yippee!"

The next night Derwin and I are standing in front of all the councilors, Derwin about to give his report on me. Maurice was watching silently from under the bench behind me.

"Well," all the councilors asked.

Derwin turned to me his eyes shining with excitement.

"I'm going to do it! I'm going to tell them the truth!"

I crossed my arms and replied in the most subtle of sarcasm, "Make me proud."

"Doctor, do you have a report on Chris Stephenson or not?"

Derwin leaned in to the faces of the councilors and said, "Christine Stephenson's only problem is the monsters under her bed. The knowledge of their existence has been tormenting this girl; she has been afraid to reveal their secret."

All the councilors stood back shocked.

"Monsters, Doctor?"

Derwin nodded his eyes crazed as he practically yelled, "Yes! Monsters! They're real! Chris showed me-her monster boyfriend Maurice came-It's true! It's true! It's-"

"Are you trying to tell me that this girl believes that monsters live under her bed…and you believe her?"

"Yes, it's all true! We went to Tokyo in 5 minutes; we went to Tokyo last night!"

"Ridiculous," Roberts murmured.

While they were distracted by the Looney behavior of Derwin I sat down on the bench, leaned over and whispered, "Hey, Maurice. Are you getting all this?"

I tape came flying into my hand and I stuffed it into my pocket.

"Chris-baby, hang on to this. You are going to love the little switch-a-roo I've played."

I looked back at the scene and I found that Derwin was becoming more insistent, loud, and crazier sounding by the second; right on target.

"It's a miracle I tell you, a whole different world. I was there, I saw it. Monsters everywhere! Eating junk food, breaking plates, stealing socks-and looks at this."

"Doctor! Settle down this instant," one of the councilors yelled.

Derwin ran over to Robert and pulled the beanie he had wearing off showing his bald head.

"Here's your proof! I did this! Me!"

I've had enough of this lunatic," Robert yelled indignantly.

Derwin realizing he was in trouble pulled out the tape recorder.

"Wait! I have it all on tape! Listen!"

He pressed the play button and all that played was a huge burp. It took all I had not to laugh or even break a smile.

"Miss Stephenson, you may return to class. The next time you appear here it _will_ be your last. Understood? This meeting is adjourned."

Derwin turned to me his eyes desperate and crazed as he yelled desperately, "Tell them Chris! Tell them it's true! Tell them about Maurice! Tell them about your monster foot!"

I just shrugged clueless. I could faintly hear Maurice chuckling below me.

"That's my girl. Way to go babe!"


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris.**

**A/N- This chapter will be fluffy and have slightly naughty themes to it. I was thinking about what to do with this story and my mind crossed the subject of physical aspects of romance. I don't want to go full out and make this an M rated story so the most you will get is hinting. If Dark Shadows could pull of a PG 13 rating, I think I can get away with a slight hint at that. This is not a hint at that it's just fluffy romance stuff. Enjoy the chapter.**

**Third Person POV-**

A few weeks later and Derwin has officially been enrolled at the mental facility. Chris went home, went back to school, and everything went back to the way it was before. Right now Maurice and Chris are playing a game of Rummy on the coffee table in the front room of his house. It's Chris's move and she examines the table for the move that will guarantee her victory. Maurice is annoying her by running a hand through her long brown hair. At another time she would have enjoyed the action, but while she's trying to concentrate on a game it just annoys her. She swat's his hand away but the hand just comes back. She frowns and squint's at the board trying to find the hidden answer in the cards.

She snags a card combo hidden behind another and grins victoriously as she goes out. Maurice's jaw drops as he looks from the card's in his hands to the ones on the table. He drops his cards on the table and sit's back defeated.

"Well, you win again babe."

Chris gathers up the cards and slips them back into the box.

"So what do you want to do now?"

"No more games! I don't think my pride can take it if you beat me again," Maurice whined.

Chris laughs and snuggles into his chest. Maurice smiles softly and raps an arm around her. Chris mentally check's off things that they could do. Each one she thinks of they have already done and the ones they haven't done wouldn't be fun anyway. She think's for a few more moments and it hit's her.

"Hey, Maurice, are you up for swimming?"

Maurice grins at her with a cocked eyebrow.

"Sure babe, I'm up for that."

They stood up and walked out the door and down the long bridge that leads from Maurice's apartment house to the central underworld. On the way to a pool Maurice insisted they visit Chris stopped and cursed.

"I don't have my bathing suit!"

"That's okay babe, we can just get you one."

"Maurice…you know I don't like stealing from the stores."

Maurice lolled his head and looked at me, "Chrissi, sometimes I swear you are still that perfect kid. Come on, it's not like we're doing anything wrong they never notice that the stuffs gone."

"Maurice…I'll just run over to my house and get mine."

"But-"

"I'll be right back! 5 minutes at the most!"

Before Maurice could protest Chris was running down a set of stairs connecting the bridge he was standing on to another below it and ran across the bridge towards her house. Maurice stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked the ground in a annoyed pout. Maurice looked at the ground and his pout turned into a grin as he realized that he would have something to look forward to when she came back.

Chris sprinted home, determined to only take 5 minutes. She ran up the stairs and crawled out from under her bed. She stomped over to her dresser and sifted through her swim suit drawer. Her eyes widened as she pulled out all her one piece and two piece short and long tops swim suits. All of them had holes cut into them. The only one that was left untouched was a blue and black teeny bikini she got last year but had never worn. She reluctantly grabbed the bikini and ran back to Maurice.

Maurice could see her coming and he looked at his watch; a little over 4 minutes. Coming to a halt in front of him she leaned over panting. Maurice chuckled and Chris glared at him.

"What?"

"Did you cut holes in all of my bathing suits?"

Maurice stared back at her as innocent as can be and shrugged.

"I have no idea who did that."

"Oh really…how come that only this," Chris held up the bikini, "was the only one that _didn't_ have holes in it, huh?"

Maurice shrugged but Chris caught the slight upturn of his mouth and the mischievous shine of his eyes.

"Okay."

Chris had already starting hatching a plan to get back at Maurice.

Maurice and Chris ran across the underworld to a public pool in a public neighborhood in her town. It was in a public pool in a park and had giant umbrella fountain, and water slide about 30 feet high that went looped then went straight. They crawled out from under the life guard board and looked around. It was completely dark and you could see the park through the bars that surrounded the pool. The gates were locked and no one was in the park or the pool.

"Here we are Chris."

"This is cool! I can't wait to go down that slide."

Maurice had left her side and went behind the front desk to the pool water controls. He twisted a few valves and the pool came to life. The water slide water began running into the pool and the fountain began to overflow with water into the pool. Even the other slide, a little one for really little kids, began to run with water.

"That ought to do it. Last one in is a rotted egg!" Maurice ran into the changing stalls and Chris ran into the other one laughing.

Chris quickly slipped her clothes off and slipped into the bikini. The minute she put it on she felt uncomfortable. She wasn't embarrassed of her body but she didn't like wearing things that were this revealing. Bikinis were the equivalent of walking around in your bra and underwear. Chris gathered up her clothes in her arms and ran quickly out to the pool area. She tossed her clothes onto a lounge chair then ran and did a cannon ball into the pool. Hearing the splash of the pool Maurice scrambled to put on his swimming trunks. He grabbed his clothes and tossed them onto the same chair where Chris's were.

He looked around for Chris and became worried when he didn't see her anywhere in the pool. Chris shot to the surface in the deep end and Maurice couldn't help but stare at her. Her hair glided behind her like a cape through the water, her skin glistened in the moonlight, and she flowed through the water as if she was part of the water herself. A soft smile of admiration graced his face as he watched her swim freely through the water.

Chris caught sight of Maurice and she blushed as she found herself admiring Maurice. Maurice was a very fit guy. He had broad, but not too broad, shoulders. His torso was lean and had the subtle impression of abs just barley outlined, his arms were about the same not body builder but it was obvious there was hidden strength in them, his legs were lean and had that same hidden strength in them, and his whole body was covered in black spots.

"Like what you see babe?"

Chris blushed and sunk neck deep into the pool. Maurice laughed and jumped into the pool causing a huge wave to wrack the pool. Chris was hit in the face by the water and went down into the pool. She swam back to the top and gulped in a breath. She pulled the wet hair out of her face like curtains in a theater and Maurice surfaced in front of her. Grinning he shook his head like a dog and ran a hand through his Mohawk. Chris gave him the 'I am not amused' face and he just laughed.

"Come on babe!"

Maurice grabbed her hands and dragged her through the water to the shallow end under the umbrella fountain where they could stand. Chris smiled as Maurice gently pulled her to his chest. Chris blushed as their bare chest's touched and Maurice grabbed one of her hands while his other hand rested on her hip. Chris wrapped her hand around his neck and looked up into the grinning face of Maurice. Maurice led her in a bouncy slightly clumsy version of a waltz that made Chris laugh. Maurice had begun to hum a slow dance song and his chest was vibrating with each note. Chris rested her head on his shoulder and his waltz slowed down and was a gentle swing back and forth.

Chris felt her eyes close as she gently let Maurice lead both their bodies. Chris didn't even remember how embarrassed she had been that she was wearing a bikini. However, Chris did remember that Maurice had cut holes into all her other bathing suits. The last time she had tried something like this Maurice won but this time she would win. She slipped her hand out of Maurice's and gently grabbed behind his head. Maurice stopped humming and stopped dancing altogether.

Chris pulled his head down to hers and sweetly kissed Maurice. Maurice softly moaned into her mouth and she moved her lips across his in response. She licked his lips and Maurice allowed her to slip her tongue into his mouth. She explored his mouth enjoying the new found dominance that she usually granted to Maurice. She accidently nicked her tongue on one of Maurice's sharp canines and her tongue started to bleed. Chris moved her tongue out of his mouth but Maurice gently wrapped his hand into her hair keeping their mouths together and he gently sucked on her tongue. Chris moaned and ran her tongue along his, breaking apart only when she needed to breathe and then kissing him right after she took a breath.

Maurice's hand gently ran over her side down to her thigh and gently cupped her rear. Chris squeaked in surprise and Maurice chuckled. Chris smiled seductively and pressed their bodies completely together. Her hands stroked his shoulders then traveled down his back to the front of his thigh. She gave it a gentle squeeze. She saw the deep blush that crossed his face.

"Chris-baby, you're driving me insane."

Chris chuckled she pressed their foreheads together and whispered, "Just you wait, I got a lot more tricks up my sleeve."

Maurice grinned goofily and laughed nervously. Chris kissed his lips one more time then fell backwards into the pool.

"I'm going to hit the slide. Want to come with?"

"Babe, I'm going with you whether you like it or not."

Chris stuck her tongue out in a silly childlike gesture and started to swim towards the slide. Maurice dived into the water right on Chris heels and quickly swam up behind her. He scooped her over his shoulder and Chris laughed as she lazily fought back. Maurice just laughed and climbed out of the pool. Maurice walked up the slide steps and at the top he put her down at the mouth of the slide. He sat down behind her and Chris fit snuggly into him.

"Ya ready babe?"

"Yep let's do this."

Chris and Maurice counted down.

"Three-two-one-GO!"

Maurice pushed them off and the two of them screamed their heads off laughing as they slid down the slide. The splashed into the water below and Maurice looked around in the water for Chris. After over 200 years of being a monster Maurice's eyes became almost like an owls. Maurice could see through darkness almost as well as a human saw in sunlight. He looked through the water and stared at Chris swimming through the water. Her hair that was now down to her feet looked like seaweed down in the water. It flowed like it was a whole other living thing swimming behind her. It flowed around her then trailed like a rope as she zoomed to the water. Chris swam to the top of the pool and Maurice followed. Chris sucked in air as she resurfaced and Maurice did the same.

"That was fun! Let's do that again!"

Maurice and Chris went down the slide over and over and over again. It wasn't until the dark night sky began to lightly blend into a lighter blue that Chris and Maurice grabbed some towels and dried off. They got changed and walked back into the underworld. Maurice had to carry the bottom half of her hair because neither of them wanted her hair to get dirty or have it snag on something as she walked. Chris was ringing her hair out so it would dry faster while Maurice did the same from the bottom.

"Geez Chris! Chris-baby, I love your hair but this must be torture!"

Chris shrugged with her head tilted to the side as she rung out her hair.

"I'm used to it now. I've been thinking about cutting it but I think I'll just trim it. I'll only cut it when it grows over 6 feet."

Maurice nodded relieved she wasn't going to cut it short. He would still love her but he liked her hair long. They walked up to her staircase and up the steps. Chris gently kissed his lips and Maurice smiled against her lips and kissed back enthusiastically. They kissed for about a minute but Chris ended it by pulling back with a grin.

"As much as I would love to stay and kiss you I got to get up."

"Yeah…I'll be waiting for you until you come back."

Chris smiled lovingly down at Maurice, "I love you Maurice."

"I love you to Chris."

Chris smiled as she climbed through to the other side and Maurice watched as she disappeared. This was always the hardest part of the night. He always missed her when she was gone, even if he knew she'd be back the next night. But the excitement of the next night and what they would do would always remind him that he had no reason to be sad. Chris would be back the next night. All he had to do was sleep and she would be at his doorstep the minute he woke up. Maurice stared at the spot for a few seconds then walked home smiling, looking forward to tomorrow tonight.


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris.**

Chris and Maurice walk across the wooden trail of Michigan. They are laughing about their most reason act of terrorism; an eel in a jug of lemonade. The eel was dead; Chris didn't want to hurt a live animal so they picked up a dead one. It has been, officially, 6 months since Chris and Maurice started dating. Chris couldn't imagine dating any other guy; she was starting to think that Maurice was '_the _guy'. He was definitely her first love but they just had something…she just hoped she wasn't the only one who thought so. Every day the temptation, the desire to be with Maurice forever grew stronger. Chris would start to contemplate how easy it would be to slip down just before the sun rose and become of monster. Once she nearly did it and she didn't even remember moving over to the bed.

Everything in her heart told her to do it. Eric and Brian knew she was going to do it eventually…so what was wrong with doing it now? Every time she was about to make it final her brain butts in and reminds her that she and Maurice may not work out. If they broke up what would she do then? She could still live with him but…it wouldn't be the same between them. If they became friends things would never go back to the way it was before. But then again… Arguments like these raged in her head all the time. But at the moment her brain was focused only on Maurice and the underworld.

"I wish I could be there when the mother comes in to get a cool glass of lemonade and…WHAM!"

Maurice laughed and Chris giggled but didn't laugh. Chris looked to the ground her smile slowly becomes sour.

"Babe, what's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing, honey, I was just thinking."

"What about?"

"I miss you so much during the day. I wish I could be with you all the time. I want to be a monster but…I can't stand the idea of Brian and Eric growing old and dying!"

Maurice pulled Chris close to him and held her head.

"Babe, it's your choice. I love you…but I'm not about to make you leave your family. I don't want you to die either but I want you to be happy Chris. As long as you're happy I'm happy."

Chris tightly hugged him and nodded. A few tears fell down her face as she pulled away and Maurice frowned.

"Come on now babe. Don't cry I hate seeing my girl sad," he gently kissed her forehead, "Come on, let's go have some fun!"

Chris smiled and leaned on Maurice, her hand entwining with his. Maurice led her into another part of the underworld.

Brian was pacing around the kitchen like a animal in a cage. Eric was sitting at the table drinking a can of coke solemnly.

"What are we going to do Brian?"

Brian shook his head.

"She's fine. There's nothing wrong."

"Brian," Eric sighed his voice held an unusual grave tone, "can't you see it? Every day she gets more…distant. I don't know how to explain it. Every night she goes down there and stays with Maurice's she drifts a little farther away from us. She barely calls me Brian. Just a month ago Chris was calling me every night, like she promised me she would. Now, she barely calls me a week. Plus, she's changing Brian."

Brian's eyes shot up glazed with defense and doubt.

"I know you've noticed. The fights she had at school, she barely talks with us, and she doesn't like sunlight."

Brian was shaking his head stubbornly. Eric sighed again.

"Brian! She hates going outside on day's she would have given anything to go out on last year. She reads in the dark! If she does have a light on its Christmas lights or candlelight!"

"What are you saying?! That she's turning into a monster! She still comes back every night; she goes out into the sun! She's fine!"

Eric sighed mournfully the words hard for him to even say.

"Brian, what I'm trying to say is that the more time she spends with Maurice the more she moves away from us. It's…like a rope. At first the rope was even, the same amount in our world and the monster world. But the more she goes down there with Maurice the more the rope is pulled into the monster world. But every time we talk to her or try to get her to do something…human. Baseball, going out with friends, coming over to my house, we pull on the rope. But, the more we pull, more rope goes into the underworld. But that force is still on that rope and the rope is slowly starting to weaken and the weaves are falling apart."

"So, are you trying to tell me that…?"

"Chris is being pulled into the underworld by her own will and by force. She's being torn literally between two worlds. She can't keep this up Brian. It's hurting her… I can see it. She's becoming thinner, and she always has circles under her eyes."

Brian sat down in front of Eric his eyes a window to the war raging inside his head.

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Well, she's gotta choose. She can't keep this up anymore. She's gotta choose between us or…Maurice."

"No. No, I could never make choose. I won't make her choose."

"She doesn't have a choice. She's getting sicker. Brian…she's told me about this. She's called me and told me about how sometimes when Maurice brings her home at midnight for sleep; it feels like she _has_ to go back under. Like a giant magnet is pulling her under the bed."

"Eric…I can't. She loves him and he loves her. How can I tell her that she has to split up with him or turn in to a monster! It's not fair!"

Eric shook his head in agreement but didn't say anything. Brian buried his head into his hands and sighed hopelessly. He knew that they finally lost. The worst part is that no matter what she chose…someone got hurt.


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris.**

A quarter to two o'clock Maurice and Chris are reclining on the couch their legs are in a tangled and they sit back onto either arms of the couch. A balloon floats between the two, falls and seizes into the air, falls and seizes. The two have a lazy conversation as the balloon falls and rises.

"So, how's school babe?"

Chris snorts, "Maurice, you don't care about my school. You and school _do not_ mix. If you went to my school you would, in less than an hour, go down in school history. Next thing you know there'll be a whole revolution of students protesting school. Teachers will run and hide under their desks, kids will run loose and destroy everything, and it will be like Lord of the Flies!"

Maurice was giving her a weirded out and indignant stare.

"That's a bit much."

"But its true isn't it?"

Maurice lifted a finger but dropped it and nodded with a small smirk.

"What's Lord of the Flies?"

"Oh it's just this book were reading in class."

"Aren't you in that smarty pants, sharp kids class? Why are you reading that particular book?"

"The book's about these school kids from England during World War 2, they're being flown somewhere outside the country for safety but the plane crashes on this island. All the adults were killed in the crash and it just follows these boys as they struggle to remain civilized as the darkness of human nature threatens to swallow them up."

"Wow, that's heavy."

"Yeah, it even has this chapter where one kid talks to the devil."

Maurice sat up, "Devil?!"

"Well he's referred to as the 'Lord of the Flies' because Simon is sitting in this little clearing staring into a dead pig skull while flies fly around the skull and his body."

Maurice gave her a grossed out and disturbed look.

"You got to read it. It's actually a very fascinating examination of human nature."

Maurice just shrugged still disturbed and smacked the balloon.

"Anyway… have any of those punks been bothering my girl?"

Maurice had a jealous threatening look on his face and Chris laughed at his seriousness.

"No. Mostly because I hate turtle necks and they can see my hickies. Plus, I told them I'm dating a guy who lives in a different country on the other side of the world."

Maurice smiled, "Well, it isn't a complete lie."

"He-he, nope."

"I'm getting tired of this," Maurice groaned as he stared at the gently falling balloon.

He grabbed it and sunk his claw like nails into the surface popping it.

"Let's do something else."

"Like what?"

Maurice wiggled his eyebrows, "I can think of a few things."

Maurice climbed over the couch to hover over her and kissed her neck. Chris chuckled and held onto his vest as his lips slid over every patch of skin on her shoulder and upper chest he could find.

"Your turn big guy."

Chris flipped them over so she was straddling Maurice and gently kissed him on the lips. She went to his neck next and gently began to suck at his Adams apple. Maurice groaned softly and gently gripped her hips. She pulled his denim shirt out from his pants and slipped her hand under his shirt and slid her hand over his stomach. Maurice growled softly. She gently ran her fingers over his chest and he slightly arched his back.

Chris pulled back with one last kiss and sat into the opposite side of the couch a smile hanging from her lips.

"Babe, you can't just leave me hangin' like that."

Chris just smiled. Maurice smirked and grabbed her tightly. Chris squirmed and fought back but Maurice was stronger. He started to tickle her and Chris fought back trying to escape his grip. But, it was futile Maurice tickled her for a good few seconds until she begged him to stop and he stopped and gently held her as she regained her breath.

"That was dirty," Chris murmured.

"No, it was payback."

Chris smirked and laid her head on his shoulder.

"What time you got Maurice?"

Maurice checked his watch.

"You're looking at 5:10."

"Alright, then we still have a few more minutes to spend together."

"Yep, just you and me babe."

He pulled her completely to him and he could feel all the outlines of her body. He was shocked to find he could feel firm outlines of her ribs through the fabric of her shirt.

"Babe, have you been eating?"

"Of course I've been eating what are you?"

Maurice had jumped off the couch and kneeled in front of her feeling her legs, arms, and stomach. All were more bony than he remembered.

"Chris, tell me the truth. Are you sick or something?"

Chris stared into his worried gaze with confusion.

"No, I'm fine. Why are you so worried all of a sudden?"

"Why am I so worried? Well, maybe because I can feel your ribs jutting out from your sides!"

Chris's hand flew to her ribcage and she was startled to find that she could feel every rib going down her abdomen.

"I don't remember h-how could I have missed this?"

Maurice sensing her fear grabbed her hand.

"Relax, baby, you just need to fill the old tank up. I probably just over reacted. Come on, we'll go down to the food room and get ya some grub right now."

Chris smiled uncertainly but followed Maurice out of his house down to the food room. Down at the food room Chris ate 3 slices of pizza, a hamburger, 3 cans of sprite, and a quart of ice cream. Now she was feeling really sick. Maurice had to literally carry her out of the food room because she couldn't walk.

"Wow, babe, I didn't know you could fit all that inside your petite little body."

"It doesn't fit."

"Well, wait till I get ya home to barf or at least do it away from me."

Chris just gave him a groan in response and Maurice walked a little faster. He carried her up to her bedroom and laid her down on her bed. Chris had fallen asleep on the way and she lay still on the bed. Maurice gently kissed the back of her hand and pulled the hair out of her face. The last thing he did before heading on his way was tucking the blankets comfortably around her, the way the blankets usually were when she was sleeping. He placed one last kiss on her forehead then kneeled to her bedside to leave. Before he could manage it a hand grabbed at his shoulder.

Maurice looked up into the silhouetted face of Brian.

"Hey Bri! What's up partner?"

Maurice's grin disappears as he sees the serious hollow expression that Brian is wearing.

"Maurice, we need to talk."

Despite his growing worry Maurice puts up a calm, cool persona.

"Sure Bri, what do you need to talk about."

"Maurice it's about Chris."

Maurice's whole face falls.

"What about her?"

"Maurice she can't go into the underworld anymore. It's tearing her apart."

"So that's why…"

"You've noticed?"

"Just today. I was holding her and I could feel her ribs all jutting out from beneath her skin. Oh god, I didn't think that going back and forth could hurt you like this. You're right Bri she's gotta stop."

"Okay so do you want to visit every night or will you bring her here for visits?"

"Bri, I aint coming back."

Brian's optimism fell and his face soured considerably.

"What do you mean 'you aint coming back'? Of course your coming back, Chris would be heartbroken if you left her."

Maurice stood up his resolve as steady and unmoving as a stone.

"If seeing me is hurting her then I'm leaving. We both know Chris and she will go back into the underworld against both of our judgments and Brian…I don't want her to get hurt."

"You really love her, huh?"

Maurice chuckled, "Yeah."

"Maurice she loves you too, honest to god she does. If you left she would never be the same…I mean, you've got to stay. Let her become a monster, I just want to see my sis happy."

Maurice held up a hand a symbol of final decision.

"She's staying here with you."

"But Maurice!"

"No But's bud. I won't tear her apart from her family."

"You are her family! You're like a brother to me!"

"You know what I mean Brian."

Brian sighed defeated and looked wearingly at Maurice.

"Who's gonna tell her?"

"I'll tell her. I'll have her back at nine at the most."

"See you around Maurice. Thanks for being there for me and my sister."

"Ahh, I should be thanking you. You and your sister have made my monster life that much sweeter. See ya later."

With a bittersweet high five and bro hug Maurice jumped through to the underworld. In her bed Chris shed tears of sadness. Brian never noticed as his own veil of sadness fell over him.


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris.**

**A/N- This chapter is definitely PG 13. Has slight sexual hinting to it but nothing really happens. Plus, this is a pretty dark chapter in itself but I hope you guys like it.**

Chris fell into a troubled sleep and when she awoke she dared not move from the bed. Chris felt that if she moved out from the bed the world would shatter. Everything seemed so delicate like a priceless vase teetering on the edge of a shelf. If disturbed even slightly the vase will break. Her life seemed to be that teetering vase that has been pushed to the very end of that shelf. If she made one wrong move the vase was going to break and her life was going to end. Well, that might have been some exaggerations on Chris's part, your life ending for a guy. But, Maurice was more than just a guy.

He was a brother to Brian, a friend, a companion, and a lover. If he left and never came back it would affect her and Brian. Chris couldn't bear to even comprehend the fact that she might never see Maurice again. A world without Maurice was livable but wasn't worth living. Maybe she was just going through the denial phase of loss that made her believe she couldn't live without him. Either way Chris was miserable and desperate to make Maurice see that she needed him.

Chris lay in the bed until sundown. When she heard the shuffle of clothing she had to hold back tears of sadness. Maurice slipped slowly out from under the bed, trying to put this off as long as possible. His goodbye to Brian had been rushed and finished quickly on both parts. Neither of them wanted the goodbye to get too emotional it just made it that much harder. Maurice stood at her bedside, awkward and sad. He reached out and tenderly shook her awake. Chris held back a soft sob and sat up in bed. She couldn't bear to look him in the eyes when he told her so she turned her head away from him towards the far window.

"Good night, baby." Maurice tried to make his voice sound cheery but he couldn't help the undertone of sadness that snuck its way into his voice.

"Hey…"

Maurice sensed her obvious sadness and became uneasy.

"You ready to go babe?"

Chris felt a glimmer of hope but also doubt. Maybe Maurice changed his mind; maybe he was going to allow her to become a monster with him after all. When she turned around her optimistic attitude fell. Whenever Maurice was sad his caramel brown eyes dimmed, and his eyes were dimmed. To another his smile would have fooled them into thinking he was his normal happy self. But Chris and Maurice had learned a lot about each other and Chris saw through it. Maurice also caught on to her sadness. When Chris was sad her eyes would blank out and she would avoid eye contact with anyone. Now, the room was getting heavier on both as they realized the other's growing sadness.

"Yeah Maurice, I'm ready let's move it."

Chris pushed the covers to her ankles and dragged herself to the edge of the bed. She slipped her sneakers on and pushed herself up from the bed. Maurice laid a hand on her shoulder but it was different than the countless other times he had done this. It almost seemed uncalled for, uncomfortable for both, a feeling they had never experienced. They had never been uncomfortable in the presence of one another, now it was almost like the simple gesture was crossing a boundary line of comfort. The two of them leaned down wordlessly to the bed side and slipped into the underworld. The walk to his place was silent and at some point Maurice's hand fell from her shoulder and stuffed itself in his jean pocket.

The walked up to the front door and stood in front of it silently. Maurice was the first to make a move. He shuffled tautly to the door and opened it. Chris tensely walked through and Maurice followed behind her. Chris plunked down onto the couch and she sat there stiff and wary of what Maurice would do next. Maurice walked slowly over and sat beside her. This was not what he had in mind when he told her. He didn't want the air between them to be heavy and uncomfortable like this. He wanted her know how much he loved her and wanted her to be happy, he didn't want their last night together to be tense.

He also didn't want to put it off; if he did he was for sure never going to be able to tell her she couldn't stay. He wouldn't have the strength or gull to.

"Chris, Chrissi…baby, I have to tell you something."

Chris snapped her eyes shut and glued them together. Here it comes…

"Baby, you're getting sick, hopping' between my world and your world is really hurting' you. Baby I love you, and I want you to be happy. A-and I feel that you'd be happier in your world with Brian and Eric. I love you but I can't come up there anymore."

"I-it's _not_ hurting me! If you leave and never come back…let me stay with you please!"

Maurice stared into her teal eyes that looked like agitated sea currents smashing and frothing against the rocks of a shore. His heart tightened painfully in his chest and he wanted to look away so badly but her eyes held him firmly to the ground.

"Baby, please this is hard for me too! But I know what it's like…to turn into a monster and your family grows older and older. It's awful and I don't want to put you through that! I love you too much to see you suffer and hurt as your family wastes away. I love you enough to let you go and have a better life. You have so much to give to that drab over world. There's a whole world out there that you haven't even seen yet who am I to take you away from that."

Maurice's voice steadily grew softer as he spoke and the last word was almost inaudible. Chris let the tears flow down her cheeks.

"I wanna stay with you. Please…don't make me go."

"Babe, as soon as I stop coming back the pull will lessen soon you won't even be able to shadow travel. Everything will go back to normal and you can meet another guy, and have family with him."

Maurice choked a little on his words and looked away from her as tears gathered in his eyes. He hated goodbyes, so much.

"Can't you see? You and Brian are being ridiculous! I love _you!_ I don't want another cotton headed bozo! I need you, things won't be the same, I'll never be the same," Chris choked on a sob and her lip quivered as she stared at an unmoving Maurice, "don't make me go. Let me stay."

"I-I can't." Maurice's voice quivered and his shoulders racked just a bit as a sleeve went to his eye.

Chris was desperate. She needed, no; she was going to make him see at all cost that he needed to let her stay and that this whole thing was stupid. She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around and smashed their lips together. Maurice wanted to resist but he couldn't push away her attentions and her desperate actions.

"Let me stay with you. Let me stay, let me stay, let me stay…"

Chris murmured the words like a prayer as she pressed their bodies together fully and kissed all over his face with tender loving kisses. Maurice wanted to resist, but every muscle was frozen immobile by her tender, loving touches. Chris kissed and sucked at his neck and began to ground herself against Maurice. Maurice let out a gasp that turned to a low growl that sent shivers up Chris's spine. Chris felt sick to her stomach at what she was doing, seducing him into letting her stay. This was something that was done in love not to get something, even if it was to let her stay. But Chris was desperate and willing to do anything to change his mind.

"Let me stay baby, I love you so much."

"S-s-stay."

Chris smiled against his neck and ran her fingers over her chest. She slipped his vest off his shoulders, then his denim shirt leaving only the muscle shirt. Maurice laid back into the wall, breathless with his head spinning. Chris nipped at his collar bone then went up to his left ear and tugged gently at his earing with her teeth.

"Let me stay here with you. I love you; I wanna be with you forever. I'm your girl, Maurice. Let me stay."

Chris gently sucked and nipped at his earlobe and he growled softly. Hearing her words he took Chris by surprise by grabbing her around the waste and pressing her firmly against the wall with his body. Chris gasped then moaned as Maurice kissed her passionately and ground his body slowly against hers. He lifted her legs and she wrapped them around his waist. He went to her neck and sucked harshly against the skin leaving a dark red mark on her neck in seconds. Chris whimpered in response. He nipped over her neck leaving small love bites. He leaned into her ear and whispered.

"Your mine, baby. Forever."

"Forever," Chris moaned back.

Maurice sucked on her ear and slipped her vest off. She was wearing a button up shirt and he slowly undid the top button. Then the next one and the next one. Her bra was barely visible and Chris was too concerned with what Maurice was doing to her to realize that they were going too far. Maurice slid a hand from her neck down to her breast bone just above her bra. Now Chris noticed it, but she didn't want him to stop.

"Maurice."

Maurice slowly came back to reality as if he was in some kind of dream he focused and realized what he was doing. He pushed himself away from her and Chris stumbled to the ground. Maurice stared at her: shirt unbuttoned at the top almost showing her bra, her neck red, and her eyes were filled with hurt and desperation. Maurice tore his eyes away from her and whispered, "You've got to go."

"But Maurice-"

"Now!"

Chris stood back shocked and hurt at his anger. He had never yelled at her before and she could see that he was hunched over and his shoulders were softly moving. She let out a sob and buttoned her shirt and ran out the door. Maurice stood still as a statue then turned to the door with tears in his eyes. He hated himself more than he had hated anything. He had taken advantage of her in her most vulnerable moment. He needed to be the bigger person, to resist and take her home while comforting her like a real man would but he had let his want and love for her turn to selfishness.

The last thing he wanted to do was make her leave, he wanted her to stay. The event that took place in the room scared him out of his wits. He wasn't thinking during the whole thing, all that ran through his head was he had to make her his, so she would never ever leave him. He didn't want to be alone again, he wanted to be loved. Chris loved him. Behind the fast talking facade he was a lonely, shy, loving person. He was a fast talker but he was the mentioned things as well. He fell onto the floor and cried. He couldn't remember the last time he cried for anything but as he cried he felt a little of his sadness disappear.


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters or Peanut. I only own Chris.**

**A/N- This chapter will have a little more action in it. It has a happy ending I promise.**

Chris ran as fast as her legs could carry her towards home. Some other monsters called out to her asking what was wrong but she stopped for none of them. He legs and chest started to burn, her heart pounded like a drum, and her lungs constricted painfully as she ran but she didn't stop. The tears burned at her eyes as the wind flew past her face but she still didn't stop. Chris looked around and she faintly acknowledged a wrong turn she made. At this point however she was content to keep running; because, she figured that all the stairways connected together at some point. Only when her lungs constricted so painfully that she thought they might explode did Chris stop and rest. She sat for a good ten minutes letting her lungs refuel its oxygen tanks.

Her skin was covered in a thin layer of sweat and her shirt clung to her skin uncomfortably. Chris stood up pulling the shirt and jeans from her skin and looked around. This was a much more deserted part of the underworld; it looked like a ghost town. Very few things lay around on the ground and there were no signs. Chris looked around uncertainly before choosing a ladder that led to a high bridge of steps and followed the path. The path was like a mountain side becoming steeper and steeper the farther she climbed. Soon Chris was stopped as the stair steps turned literally into a straight line upwards into the air. Chris regarded the seemingly endless fall below then started to climb.

Chris dared not look down as she climbed. Her hands threatened to sweat a few times but Chris just rested on the stair for a while dried her hands then kept climbing. For a while it seemed that the climb would be endless, that she would climb and climb but never reach the top. But after a while Chris could see the top of a ledge just above her. She climbed readily to the top and pulled herself up over the ledge. Chris sat hanging her legs over the dark pit below resting her sore arms and legs. She gazed over at the horizon and she gasped.

Chris could see the entire underworld from here. She wasn't at the top of Boy's room and as she squinted into the distance she could see the outline of the building. So, Chris pondered exactly where in the underworld she was. She had never seen this building considering how tall it was she was sure she would have at least spotted it once while she was down here. After all, Chris could easily see the entire main underworld from here, even the mirror doors to the arcade. As Chris continued to think a figure approached her from behind.

Chris heard the soft footsteps that came up behind her and she spun around to meet a monster.

"Hi."

The monster had dark pine tree green hair and grass green skin dotted with normal colored freckles. Her hair fell around the top of her shoulders in soft curls. Her eyes were a light sky blue and held a friendly disposition. She wore a blue jacket over a purple shirt, and she was wearing red and white shoes.

"Hey."

The two stood silently for a few moments examining the other with the curiosity of children looking over a new friend.

"I'm Peanut," the green monster said as she held out a 4 fingered hand.

Chris took it with a smile and replied, "I'm Chris."

"Did you climb all the way up here?"

"Yeah."

"Whoa, impressive. That had to be at least a mile. You climb a lot huh?"

Chris nodded.

"I thought so. So, what are you doing all the way out here? Up till now I thought I was the only one who knew about this place."

"Actually I just ran here. Just kept running until I found this old, dark square then chose a path and kept walking."

"Are one of those kids that are born with monstering abilities and just walked on a shadow and fell in? Because I'd be happy to take you back."

"No I'm not but I do need some help finding my way back if you're still offering to take me."

Peanut scratched her head.

"If you're not one of those kids, how did you get here, because you don't look like a monster?"

Chris's face fell and Peanut looked over her concerned.

"Hey, if it's personal I understand. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"It's nothing; I just got into a fight with…a friend."

"A friend," Peanut asked in a sly tone.

"Okay…my boyfriend."

"Oh, I get it so you got into a fight with your man then you fell here."

"No…"

Peanut's eyes widened in realization and she blinked a few times.

"You're dating a monster?"

"Uh huh."

"I've never heard of that before, it's like true love!"

"What monsters don't love?"

"Well, you've got to remember most of us are kids, really little kids. No one tells you to grow up and we don't have a school to tell us about this kind of thing so not many monsters want to. The others don't like it because a real relationship requires work and commitment. Things monsters hate…so you get the idea."

Chris soaked in the words and realized how hard it must have been for Maurice to tell her to leave. If he truly loved her than it must have been nearly impossible…

"Um…anyway you need a guide back?"

Chris looked up, "Yeah, I would really appreciate it."

Peanut led her down the other side of the tower that had escalator steps to the ground below.

"What is this place?"

"Nothing. It's the part of the underworld that hasn't been worked on."

"Why?"

"Because there's nowhere left to put the stairways to. The whole world is already done."

"So where would these shadow's lead?"

"No one knows."

The conversation ended there and Chris gazed up into the endless black sky before directing her attention back on where Peanut was going. Soon they were nearing a clearing that led back near the arcade. Chris smiled then turned to Peanut.

"Thanks' Peanut, this means a lot to me."

"It was no big deal. I was glad to help."

"Peanut?"

"Hmm?"

"What were you doing up there?"

"I found that building a few years back. Didn't tell anyone about it. It makes a great spot to just sit and relax with no noise or anyone to bother you. Sometimes in the other part of the underworld you're never alone. Which is good, you know, if your ever in a jam, you've always got somebody to cover your back. But it can get annoying."

Chris nodded, "I know what you mean."

Peanut and Chris headed under a large archway splitting one half of the underworld from the other. Chris was just about to walk through when a pair of arms reached out and grabbed her. Chris tried to struggle but it was no use. Peanut stepped through the arch and turned behind her.

"Okay Chris here we are-"

"Chris?"

"Chris?!"

"Chris?! Where are you?"

Peanut knew that in just a split second Chris could be lost anywhere in there so she ran for the arcade to see if anyone knew whose Chris's boyfriend was. She was going to need help if she was going to find her. Meanwhile, Chris was bucking and fighting wildly in the arms of her kidnapper. A huge hand gagged her preventing her from screaming and her arms were held down at her sides. She tried biting the hand but it was clad in leather and it didn't affect the guy at all. She fought for a few more minutes but her body inevitable became too weak to carry on fighting anymore.

She went limp and her attacker threw her over his shoulder. She couldn't make out any identifiable marks on the monster. It was way too dark. The part of the underworld her and Peanut had been in was dim but still had that red light illuminating everything in view. Chris couldn't see anything, not even an inch in front of her eyes. Fear ran through her veins. What if no one ever found her? What would this monster do to her? What if this monster was going to do obscene things to her, keep her like a pet until she died, and they would find her a corpse in the back of a cage? Awful thoughts like this ran through her head as her kidnapper walked on. A few tears fell from her eyes; she wished she was back at home right now.

Peanut ran frantically through the underworld. She bumped into a few monsters who yelled annoyed at her but she ignored all of them. It wasn't until she was looking around that she bumped into someone so hard that it knocked both of them to the ground. She pulled herself off the ground and looked at the monster she had bumped into.

"Gee, I'm sorry."

"It's alright. No harm done."

Peanut was a little shocked at the monster. He looked really depressed and his eyes were had a slight red tint like he hadn't slept in a while or he had been crying, a major contrast to the usual monster appearance of happy exuberance.

"Hey can you help me."

"…sure," the monster answered tiredly.

"Do you know Chris?"

The monsters head shot up.

"Chris Stephenson?"

"I don't know her last name, but she has really long brown hair all the way to her feet, wearing a denim vest, with a black button up shirt, you know her?"

"Why, what's wrong with her?"

"Look, I need to find out who the monster was she was dating."

"I'm that monster. I'm Maurice! What's wrong?"

Peanut grabbed his hand urgently.

"You need to come with me!"

Peanut pulled Maurice off towards the uninhabited part of the underworld.

"W-what's wrong!"

"Chris was in the dark part of the underworld. She met me and I took her back but right as we were passing under the arch she disappeared! We need to find her. I might not know her but she seemed like a really nice girl and I aint one of those heartless monsters, so you and me are going in there after her."

"Dark part of the underworld?!" Maurice ran ahead of Peanut and Peanut looked after him surprised and ran hastily behind him.

Chris had lost track of how long they had been walking. They seemed to be walking deeper and deeper into the blinding darkness. Chris's stomach lurched from fear and she had to choke down bile a few times. Soon Chris heard a door being thrown open violently and she was thrown carelessly onto a wood floor. A door was shut and heavy footsteps thudded across the floor. Chris's heart pounded in her chest and she tried to force her pants into whispers. The sound of a match striking sounded and a dim light lit the room. A candle was lit and despite the newfound light Chris could barely see anything. The heavy footsteps came closer to her and she squinted through the darkness.

When she caught sight of who had taken her she wished she hadn't looked. It was Snick but he looked even worse than he had been before. His skin had turned a red brown from burned and some of it looked like burnt wax. He was in one piece but it looked like he had sewn himself together, stitches covered his whole face and bodies. His hump had melted so it drooped, making Snick hunch over even more than he had before. Like always a cigarette hung out of the side of his mouth. He was wearing different clothes probably because his old clothes were burnt beyond use. He still wore leather and he was staring at her with a dark hateful eyes.

"How did you?"

"Survive?" Snick chuckled darkly.

"Took me awhile to put myself back together, after the attempt by _Maurice._"

Snick hissed Maurice's name out with so much venom and hate that it made her fearful for Maurice's well-being.

"But, now I have you."

"Why me?"

"Because, I don't just want to kill Maurice, Brian, and you. Oh no, I want to see them squirm and beg for mercy. What better way to get that reaction then to force them to watch as their poor Chris gets tortured."

Chris crawled into a corner of the house. Snick looked her over and licked his stitched malformed lips.

"Or maybe, I'll do some other things. You have grown a lot in the past years."

Chris was terrified but she glared with as much hate as she could muster into Snicks face.

"You're not going to do anything! I'm getting out of here then me, Maurice, and Brian will get rid of you once and for all."

"When will you learn that you can't get rid of me? I'll just come back angrier and stronger."

"Your bullshitting yourself and you know it. Boy didn't come back, that means that at some point your time will run out to!"

"Boy was a weakling, besides Maurice and Brian won't come until I want them to come. No one can find their way through that maze until I turn on the lights here."

"How did you even survive? The other monsters would have ripped you apart."

"I found this place after I put myself together. The other monsters never go into Boy' room. So no one knew I came back. If I were you…I'd behave because I could get a head start on the punishment."

"You got what you deserved," Chris growled through bared teeth. Snick faster than Chris would have believed lifted a hand and back handed her so hard her head snapped to the side and the side of her lip split. Chris grabbed her mouth shocked and looked too the ground.

"Keep your mouth shut! Unless you feel like having an arm broken before the real fun even starts. I'm going out…don't even try to run because you don't want to know what will happen if you try. Have fun, try not to miss me."

Snick laughed manically as he walked out of the house into the dark. Chris took off her vest and pressed it to the side of her mouth. Her face was probably going to be a bruise by tomorrow morning. Chris was just thankful that her mouth had only split a little and the side of her whole mouth hadn't ripped. She had never felt a blow like that before, it was the first time she had felt the extent of Snick's strength. Keeping the light pressure to her mouth Chris used her other hand to feel around on the floor. He palm slipped over a rock and she closed her palm around it. She stood up and walked to the door. She grabbed the doorknob and threw the door open. Looking out into the dark she tossed the rock through. Bright electrical lights flashed in the door for 5 straight minutes.

Chris stumbled away from the door and fell to the floor near the table with the candle on it. She looked at the door and started to cry. The horrible truth was that Maurice and maybe Brian would never be able to find her, not in darkness like that. Chris sat near the table picked the candle off the table and set it in front of her. Chris cried as she watched the flame dance over the wick of the candle.


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters. I only own Chris. That's it. I don't own Peanut or Bubbs. The wart hog plot line belongs to the comic book. I love this plot line so much I had to do something with it.**

Peanut and Maurice sprinted to the arch separating the unfinished underworld from its settled counterpart. Maurice stared into the vast darkness and shook his head.

"We need light. Peanut go to Brian Stephenson's staircase. Go get Brian and some lights."

"Right."

Peanut ran off while Maurice stood in front of the arch waiting for her. Peanut ran as fast as she could to the Stephenson residence. On the way she bumped into another monster knocking him down.

"I'm sorry!"

"It's alright, I'm used to it."

The monster was also green, had a huge row of sharp teeth, a long bear like snout with his nostrils on the side of his face, and two long cone horns stuck out from the sides of his face.

"Do you mind helping me out?"

"That depends... What do you need help with?"

Peanut explained the current situation that they had found themselves in. The monster listened and when Peanut finished he smiled.

"Maurice? He's my hero! Sure I'll help rescue Maurice's girl!"

"Great thanks! We have to go get her brother Brian first."

"Sure, okay."

The two ran to Brian and Chris's staircase and climbed the stairs. They got Brian to follow them after a short explanation and Brian grabbed as many flashlights he could carry for the four of them and they ran off to meet Maurice. They met up with Maurice under the arch in less than 5 minutes, both panting and wary.

"Who's this," Maurice asked gesturing to the monster.

"I'm Bubbs, I'm your biggest fan and I'm here to help."

"I sure do appreciate you helping out Bubbs. Thanks."

The shake hands and Brian hands out the flashlights.

"Alright, we don't have much time. We have to go find Chris."

"Peanut how big is this part of the underworld?"

"As far as I know, it's endless."

Brian's eyes widened and his hands tightened around his flashlight. Maurice sighed and stared into the darkness with glum determination.

"Alright then we'd better get moving."

Maurice warily flipped the switch on his flashlight and quickly slipped on his shades. He held out the flashlight in front of him like a bomb and walked into the darkness. Peanut, Bubbs, and Brian followed right behind making sure that their beams of light didn't hit Maurice. They walked for a while, four small figures walking through the fog of black. The farther they walked the more the smell of something ancient invaded their nostrils, like a dusty old basement being rediscovered after years and years of sitting untouched.

Maurice walked cautiously through the dark, a nagging feeling deep in his gut. He tried to ignore it but the feeling only increased as he walked.

Finally he spoke his thoughts, "I think we should turn out the lights."

"Turn out the lights! Are you crazy! Then we'll be the ones in need of rescuing."

"Just hear me out Bri. If Chris was taken, which I'm pretty sure she was, her kidnapper must be hiding her somewhere, right?"

"Yeah," Brian's beam flickered like the cat of an agitated cat.

"If she's being held somewhere then the guy had to have some light in the house. If we turn out the lights then if there's a light we'll be more likely to see it."

"Yeah, your right; but, if we turn out the lights and walk aimlessly we might miss the place altogether. And then what?"

"Do you have a better idea," Maurice asked solemnly.

Brian looked to the ground then threw the switch and in turn his beam went out. Peanut turned her beam out, Bubbs switched off his, and Maurice did the same. They became invisible, figures moving undetected through black air. Maurice pushed away the urge to turn the flashlight back on as he walked. His steps were cautious and slow. Maurice couldn't see anything, his eyes could see in darkness but the darkness he had always been in was illuminated by the moon or light of the underworld. He had never walked in darkness like this; it was almost as if he were blind. This made Maurice wonder if blind people saw all white or all black.

"Guy's I'm scared. I can't see anything."

"It's okay peanut, were right near you. Just stay close," Brian whispered to Peanut who was on her left while Bubbs was at her right.

"Alright Brian, if you say so."

The three walked on, blind, timid, and frightened. Until their eyes caught something, a faint blue glittering light like sun on water.

"Y-you guys are seeing that blue light too, right?"

Maurice and Brian didn't speak but they nodded.

"What is that," Bubbs asked shakily.

"It's Chris."

Maurice stole forward quick stepping towards the light. Brian rushed after him, and Bubbs ran after them scared leaving Peanut who was beckoning them back desperately. When they showed no sign of stopping she shook her head and followed behind. The light was still going strong and Maurice was going to get there before the light went out.

"Guys, w-what if…it's not…Chris?"

Maurice again didn't respond he kept on running towards the light. The three of them reached the source of the light and watched entranced at the dancing electricity running across and along the door. Then it stopped. The three stood confused until they heard sobs inside the house. Maurice listened closely and relief filled his chest as he recognized Chris's voice.

"Chris. Is that you babe?"

"M-Maurice?"

Maurice ran at the door, "Yeah, baby, it's okay! It's me!"

"Maurice, don't come any closer!"

Maurice stops just short of coming in the door.

"It's rigged! If you step through the door you'll be electrocuted!"

Maurice stumbles back. He squints inside the house and a figure holding a candle steps up to the door. Chris stands in the doorway her thin face illuminated in the flickering light of the candle. Her face is terribly thin and her cheekbones are visible, dark circles color her eyes making her eyes appear sunken in, her body has become even bonier.

"Chris, you're even worse now… Don't you worry babe! Me, Peanut, Bubbs and Brian is here to help you. Do you know another way in?"

Chris shook her head regrettably. Maurice pounded the door frame and a box popped out. It was a code pad.

"Babe, do you know what the code is? I found a key pad!"

Chris thought then she looked up at Maurice.

"Kill Maurice."

"I beg your pardon?"

"It's just a guess."

Maurice types it in hesitantly and the door runs electricity then stops. Chris leans down picks up a small stone and throws it gently through. When nothing happened she walked through the door. Brian made it to her first and crushed her in a hug, Peanut gave her warm hug and a smile, and Maurice grabbed her and spun her around happily.

"Oh Chris, I'm so glad that you're okay."

Maurice showered her face in kisses and Brian grimaces with a small grin Bubbs looks away uncomfortably but also wears a small grin, and peanut smiles softly.

"Babe be honest, who kidnapped you?"

Chris looked up with dim eyes, "Snick. Snick kidnapped me."

"Snick! I thought he was dead," Brian exclaimed.

"So did I," Chris whispered sadly.

Maurice's face frowns angrily but wraps his arm around Chris's shoulders.

"Who's that," Chris asked pointing to Bubbs.

"This is Bubbs he helped us find you. Bubbs this is my girl Chris."

Bubbs shook her hand gently. "Nice to meet ya."

"You too Bubbs. Thanks for helping me."

"Well babe, all that matters now, is that you're safe Chris. Let's get you home. Bri, how much time do we got?"

"About 7 hours."

"Okay, let's get a move on."

"Wait! We can't go back that way!"

"Why not sis?"

"Snick left earlier and said that he'd be back. He'll be coming back that way."

Because the universe like's to make things hard heavy footsteps sounds in the distance.

"Oh no…"

"What do we do," Peanut asked panicked.

Maurice turns away from the others and turns on his flashlight. He shines it around until it lands on a cave with a sign that has the words Tunnel of Love painted on it.

"Quick in there!"

They run towards it and quickly run inside. They don't look back or even stop as they run to the other side. When they reached the other side they all stopped and stared. It was like a jungle with tall trees with vines hanging to the grass covered earth. Long ladders, some rope others made of some sort of wood, hug down from the sky that look the same as the one in the underworld. With the ladders there were also staircases. Something different from the main underworld was the rope bridges that crisscrossed above them. The ones in the main underworld were wooden bridges. All in all this had a major jungle theme.

"Whoa! It's like another level of the underworld! Did any of you guys know this was here," Brian asked amazed.

They all shook their heads except for Bubbs.

"Guys, not to be a wimp or nothing, but I think we should head back. I've heard of this place. They say that monster eating warthogs live down here that skin their…oh! I don't even want to think about it!"

"We can't go back there," Chris says "Snick will kill us!"

Bubbs gulps and nods hesitantly. They walk on out into the open space of this new discovery and unseen by the four below eyes watch them from above. Then out of nowhere small arrows rain down on them.

"Poison darts," Bubbs screams, "run!"

The four run shielding their faces with their arms. They hide behind a small shed in the middle of the open space and hide behind it.

"I told you! I told you! Now were going to get eaten!"

"Bubbs shush," Chris says, "We won't get eaten as long as they don't find us."

Bubbs whimpers softly and leans against the shack some more.

"Alright, now would be a good time to give me some ideas because I don't have any."

Small scurrying footsteps surround the shack.

"They're coming!"

"Up there," Brian whispers, "up that ladder."

Brian and Chris runs without any second thoughts to the ladder and start to climb. Maurice follows with Bubbs and Peanut and they stare up at the two of them.

"Guy's I don't know about this. I have no idea where these ladders lead."

"Well, Maurice, what other choice do we have other than being lunch?"

Maurice sighs and starts climbing. Peanut and Bubbs follow behind scared and hesitant about this escape plan. Brian and Chris stick their heads under the bed and they stare at the room.

"What is this," Brian asks confused.

Maurice joins their side and stares into the room with raised eyebrows.

"Well, kids, were not in Kansas anymore."


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters, the movie or the comics. I don't own Peanut, Bubbs, or the monster eating wart hogs plot. All those go to the comic. I only own Chris.**

The room had 3 young teens dressed in tie-dyes t shirts, baggy bellbottoms, wearing peace necklaces, round colored lenses sunglasses, and bands around their heads. The room had posters of bands and singers that Chris didn't recognize.

"Where are we?"

"Bri guy, I think the more appropriate question is 'when is this'?" Welcome to the sixties, pard. Land of free-love, bell-bottoms, and unclean hair."

"The sixties, but that isn't possible!"

The three kids were staring at the three creatures and two kids strangely.

"Eh, Charlie, you've got things growing under your bed again man."

"Heavy man."

"That's one wicked looking dust bunny."

They crawl out from under the bed and the three kids walk up to them like seeing monsters crawl out from under your bed was completely normal. They began to show them all the stuff around their room.

"Bri, don't you get it? It's time travel! It's being able to monster like you've never dreamed!"

Chris smiled happily at Maurice's excitement. Maurice held up a peace sign at the kids before continuing.

"It's our big chance Brian. No one had no idea what these shadows led to, now we can just walk into some of the hottest bedrooms in history!"

"Yeah, but now that we've got Chris don't you think we should get her back home."

Chris looked at Brian sardonically, "Bri take a pill, would ya?"

A kid had wandered over to Maurice and slipped a pair of green colored sunglasses on his face and slipped a tasseled vest over his leather one.

"Come on, sit down and we'll rap about the oppression and learn how to replace your hate with love."

"What he said."

The girl of the three kids who had been braiding peanuts hair went to Chris's side and looked her over.

"Honey, you're practically starving! Here," she handed Chris a candy bar, "eat and sit."

Admittedly Chris wasn't hungry but she ate anyway and sat as the woman wove flowers into her hair and talked randomly about war and how violence was bad. She wrapped a band around her head put a peace necklace around her neck. Peanut sat beside Chris and Chris shared her candy bar as well as strange looks with peanut as the girl continued to talk aimlessly about things that really didn't make sense. Bubbs was looking over a lava lamp tapping on the glass with his claw.

"Bri, even if we go back Snick is waiting for us. Besides, we'd be passing up a rare opportunity! When did you think you could ever see the past?!"

"Yeah, Bri, a small detour wouldn't be so bad," Chris said with a smile.

Brian leans in to Maurice's ear, "did you forget the whole reason why we have to get her home?! Look at her, she's getting worse!"

Maurice's face falls and Chris frowns and stands.

"I am fine! One night isn't going to kill me! Bedside's we can time travel, we could see any time period we want! How could we pass that up?"

Brian and Maurice stare up at her and she stared defiantly right back. Peanut and Bubbs went to the bed and looked below.

"We can't go back under there. The wart hogs are waiting for us."

"Nope can't do it," Peanut added.

"There, ya see. We can't go back. So we might as well go have some fun," Chris replied her arms crossed and a grin on her face.

Brian looks away doubtfully and Maurice grins as he realizes that he must be rubbing off on her. He stands up and goes over to her and dips her.

"Have some fun, eh? What kind of fun do you have in mind?"

Chris with all the people watching turned into a blushing schoolgirl and turned her head shyly away.

Maurice places a finger beneath her chin and pulled her face to his and gently kissed her. It was cut short by the three kids aweing at them. They pulled away from each other the sweet kiss turned awkward.

"Okay, we are off to do some monstering."

Maurice turns to the three kids and shakes the guy's hands and ruffles the girl's hair. He tossed the glasses and vest back at them.

"Wish me luck, looks like it's going to be a long one."

Chris took the band off her hair and handed the necklace back to the girl and thanked her for doing her hair. Brian took the band off his head and tossed it to a guy, and Peanut took her band off and handed it to the kids. Maurice walked through the door that led out into the hall.

"Follow me flunkies."

They found a bed and Peanut and Bubbs were the first one's down.

"Forget it! I am not about to go running around the world tormenting little kids again!"

"Okay! Have it your way, stay here. After sunrise, you'll be another one of those beautiful flowery hippie children. I dig it, it's you."

Chris giggled and Maurice smiled and winked at her.

"Okay you made your point already; I'll go with you guys. But as soon as we can we are going back."

The three of them slip down and Maurice turns to Brian with a huge grin.

"The monster is loose! Ahh!"

The three of them walk cautiously through the jungle over to another ladder. But guarding that ladder was a couple of wart hogs. They were very small only about two feet tall, brown skin, they wore human clothes, and they looked more like monsters then wart hogs. They had long snouts like hogs but they didn't have the flat nose like a pig, just nostrils.

"Oh no they're blocking the path! Now what are we going to do," Peanut loudly whispered.

"Watch and learn."

Maurice lifts his foot and pulls a piece of gum off the bottom of his sneaker.

"Gum," Chris and Brian asks confused.

"Yep, the flavor last and lasts."

Maurice tosses the gum into his mouth and Brian and Chris grimaced. Maurice chews as he pulls out a slingshot from inside of his vest. He spits the gum onto his hand then sticks it into the slingshot.

"On three, now!"

He lets it fly and it hits on of the wart hogs face. The other two start snickering and the wart hog that had gum stuck on his head yelled indignantly and accusingly at the other two.

"Here's our break!"

The five of them runs to the ladder while the three wart hogs fight and quickly climb. They then walk across a rope bridge. The rope bridge turns into a wooden floor and they walk along it to a staircase. Bubbs, who is carrying Peanut on his back, walks up the stairs and sticks his head out from under the bed.

"Holy Bageezas!"

"Golly!"

"That good? Well, there's no parking on the dance floor kids. Wanna move?"

Bubbs stands up into the room and Peanut climbs off his back. Maurice, Brian, and Chris, climbs out from under the bed and looks around in wonderment.

"Wow. You know, the sixties really didn't do it for me; but this, this is the middle ages!"

"I've always wanted to see the middle ages," Chris exclaims.

Maurice smiles and wraps his arm around her.

Bubbs taps his chin, "there's so much stuff I can't decide what to do first."

Peanut had started to look around and she spotted who the room belonged to. She walked entranced to the bed and stared at the fair haired young teen lying in bed.

"Wow, he's gorgeous."

Peanut rests her head in her hands as she admires the boy in bed. Then a loud yell sounds through the room and everyone turns to the bed. Maurice is standing at the boy's feet wearing a knight's helmet pointing a sword at him.

"One move and you'll be run through by Maurice! The wild and rugged knight!"

They all giggled at Maurice before a loud crashing sound echoed through the room. Maurice lifted the sliding part of the helmet up allowing him to see and he looked at Bubbs sitting on the floor in a scattered pile of armor.

"Whoops."

"Something broken? No prob babe. Nothin' a little super glue can't fix up in a jiff."

Maurice took the helmet off and pulled out a tube of super glue and glued the armor back together. Chris giggled as they put a few parts out of place making the armor look weird. Maurice stood back and smiled at the armor before grinning proudly at Chris.

"See what did I tell ya?"

Chris just shook her head chuckling.

"What?"

Chris just leans up and kisses Maurice on the cheek. Maurice grins goofily then wraps his hands around her waist being extra gentle because of how thin she was and gently kissed her neck. Chris smiled and leaned on Maurice. He leaned back keeping his hands wrapped around her waist and looked at her hair.

"You should put flowers in your hair more often babe. They look nice."

"Maybe," Chris murmured.

Maurice ran a hand through her hair and frowned as his hand went through thinning hair. Chris had always had thick hair. Maurice felt that stone in his stomach again. He shook his head and cupped his hands to his face.

"Alright buds. Fall in!"

They all crowd together and make a football huddle as Maurice explained the plan to destroy the house. The plan was soon set into motion. The replaced all the sugar supplies with salt, they broke mirrors, they ate the food that was in the kitchen, they set up a bucket of water over a door, they flooded the floor, and peanut sat at the knights bedside and held his hand as she admired him. Bubbs, Maurice, Brian, and Chris moved back into the knight's bedroom and Bubbs and Peanut were finger painting the wall.

"Eh Bri? What time you got?"

"4:10, 5:10 I don't know."

"Don't tell me you're going sissy and you feel bad about smashing up the place."

"Nah, Maurice, you can't help it. It's in your blood."

"It's more than that it what we do. Monsters and mischief go hand in hand, and you're looking at the king. Someone has to keep twerps like you awake. Let you know that there's more to life than just adding to the GNP. Let you know that you don't have to be one of those cotton head people that just let the wind take them wherever. Chris was almost one of those people, but we woke her up and look at her now."

"Maurice, stop it!"

Maurice turns confused to Brian.

"Look at her. Look how frail she is, Maurice, if you had told me yesterday that you wanted her to stay I would have happily let her stay with you. But now, Snick is back, and he kidnapped her! We don't know if he'll try again and we might not come in time. We need to bring her back. I know that you're really torn up about this and I can see that you want her to stay but…"

A scream came from outside and everybody froze.

"Where's Peanut," Chris asked.

They all ran to the draw bridge and they all froze when they saw Peanut being hung over the side of the drawbridge over the crocodile infested moat by Snick.

"Nice fins guys. I had no idea that the wart hogs ladders could time travel. I don't know why you would recruit this little regret to help rescue your poor little Chris," at this Maurice grabbed Chris and stood in front of her protectively, "but she looks like she'll make a tasty snack."

"No," Chris screamed from behind Maurice, "What do you want?"

"You know exactly what I want. I want Maurice, Brian, and you. I have to say I was pretty steamed at first. Maurice running of with you, but now I can get all three of you at once."

"Snick, leave her out of this! She's got nothing to do with this!"

Snick laughs and scratches his scarred burnt chin, "Tell you what. Since I really feel for you, if you come quietly I'll leave the doll alone."

Maurice sighed and glanced back at Chris who was holding onto him protectively. He stepped forward and held out his hands.

"Alright, I give. Take me, cuff me, and let me sing the blues."

"Maurice no," Chris screamed grabbing onto his arm.

"Babe, do you have a better idea?"

"If we go we go together!"

"No, I'm not going to risk you getting hurt!"

"Let me help you kiddies decide."

Snick drops Peanut over the edge and they all scream. Until a knight on a horse caught her before she hit the water. Peanut hops off the horse and looks up amazed at the knight. The horse stands on its hind legs and the knight falls off. Chris rolls her eyes and helps the knight get back on his feet. Snick moves towards them murder in his eyes before Bubbs comes galloping onto the drawbridge riding on the horse and gets him with the lance. Snick flies backwards on the drawbridge and everyone cheers. Until Snick pulls out a flashlight and shines it on Bubbs he turns to clothes that falls off the horse just hanging off the edge of the drawbridge.

Snick walks over to Bubbs a sick smile on his face and raises a foot to kick Bubbs off the edge. Chris growls and grabs the shield and runs towards Snick she lifts the heavy shield and brings it down as hard as she could on snicks head. He drops the flashlight and she grabs the flashlight and Bubbs and runs towards the others. Maurice had run behind Chris and while Chris ran towards Brian with Bubbs he grabbed the shield. Snick shook his head and glared at Maurice. He grabbed Maurice's vest and lifts his face to his.

"Not so tough are you now wise guy?"

Chris turns her head back to look at the scene she runs towards them the flashlight in her hand. She stands in front of them and points the flashlight at the two of them.

"I'm sorry honey, it's the only way."

Snick raises his hand but she flips the switch and they both turns into clothes. She lovingly picked up Maurice and laid him to the side keeping the beam on Snick.

"Game over, Snick."

Snick's sleeves flap wildly but Chris just glares and keeps the beam trained on them. The clothes start to smoke and when the clothes catch on fire and a scream comes from the clothes she kicks the clothes into the moat. The crocodiles have a heyday and rip and tear the clothes to bits. Soon Snick is no more and the crocodiles swim away satisfied.

Chris spins around to look at the four others.

"I don't know about you, but I'm ready to go."

They all laugh and nod their heads. Chris walks over to Maurice who wraps an arm around her shoulders and shakes her shoulders proudly.

"thank for helping out man," Brian says as he shakes the knight's hand.

"Rescuing fair maidens is what I do best."

Peanut kisses the knight on the cheek and Bubbs pushed her away.

"Come on we got to go! Time's running out!"

"Relax Bubbs, what could possibly go wrong now," Maurice asks as he walks into the hall leading back into the knight's bedroom.

"Wrong doesn't even begin to describe it, fish face."

The hogs were blocking the path at least 20 of them with spears and rope. Maurice wraps his arm around Chris, Chris grabs Brian and Maurice's hands, and Peanut and Bubbs whimpers.


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters or any of the characters or plot. I only own Chris.**

The hogs pounce on them and wrap them up in rope.

"Get off me," Chris yells annoyed.

"Bri, tell 'em we had first class."

Despite the groups struggle the Monster hunting wart hogs succeeded…in carrying off their next meal. They were tied being carried through the wart hog level of the underworld. They were carried into the kitchen past a huge table where other wart hogs were eating and partying.

"Hey, Chris, Bri, if we don't make it and ya two turn into monsters; well, I promise that we'll have a good time."

"Maurice, I don't think we'll have to worry about _that!"_

"Well, at least it's been good up till now."

Chris smiled despite the situation and Maurice smiled back at her. They set them down in the kitchen and went to work. Chris looked around horrified at the others: Brian was laying belly first being seasoned with salt and pepper, Bubbs was being forced into an oven, Peanut was being forced into a big pot of water, and Maurice was laying belly first on a silver platter with an apple in his mouth. Chris herself was being tied on a stick to be roasted over a fire that the hogs were lighting.

"Bubbs, what time is it?"

"I don't know Brian, I can't see my clock."

A wart hog climbs onto Bubbs back, "Need a hand? You're looking at 5:10."

"Gee, I'm really sorry Brian. You and Chris are going to be monsters."

Maurice mumbled something through the apple but Chris couldn't understand what he was saying.

"What?"

Maurice spit the apple out of his mouth and the wart hog shouted frustratingly at him, "Hey cut that out!"

Maurice hopped up from the silver tray and looked angrily down at the ropes.

"I can't take it anymore!"

Maurice snapped the ropes then pushed the hogs away.

"Hey sit back down!"

"Someone get more rope!"

"Darn you!"

"Wait! Hang on a minute. Will you stop for just a second?"

The wart hogs stop their efforts and stare at him.

"Thank you, now who's in charge here?"

A few hog walk back out into the dining room and they come back with a hog dressed in a cape and crown.

"I'm Pyro, king of the monster hunting wart hogs. Who dares to make such a ruckus just minutes before feasting time?"

Maurice walks over to the wart hog king and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, I don't know what your beef with monsters is but after eyeing this lot the last thing that I would want to do is eat them. How good could they possibly taste, I mean, look at the human girl she's thinner than a stick no meat at all."

"Hey!"

Maurice puts a finger to his lip and shushes her silently. Chris goes silent but glares pouting at Maurice.

"Gee, I'm starting to see your point. In fact, I don't know why we hunt and eat monsters; they don't taste all that good and that human, yuck!"

"You know, up top we have a ton of party pies. A whole room just filled with 'em. Chris and Bri need to get back before sunrise or they'll be monsters. I know how you just love party pies… Tell ya what Kingy, if you let us go and lead us back to the top you and the other monster eating wart hogs can have the room all to yourself. What do ya say kingy?"

"Hmm, okay we'll do it."

The other wart hogs now excited at the promise of pies untie the five of them laughing and cheering happily. The king waves them over and the wart hogs lead them out back into the jungle. They wind the group easily through the jungle and then through a tunnel. Soon they find themselves back at the top.

"We made it. Wahoo!"

Maurice laughed at Chris's excitement but frowned concerned when she doubled over holding her stomach.

"Are you alright Chris?"

Chris took Maurice's hand off her back and loosely gripped his hand.

"I'm fine just a little winded all of a sudden."

Maurice bit his tongue and picks her up bridal style.

"Okay the room is up top in Boy's room. It's the first door on the left."

The hogs all run their excitedly leaving the five of them alone.

"Thanks for helping you two; you can leave now if you want. But feel free to call us anytime."

They all share a smile and Bubbs and Peanut wave goodbye shake hands and walk off promising to see them sometime soon.

"Is there really…pies in that room," Chris asked with a small pained smile.

"Yeah, I found it those three years you were gone, had a lot of time on my hands. We got to get you home."

They ran to their staircase and they had 15 seconds left. Chris was whimpering now.

"Hold on babe."

Brian and Maurice looked up at the shadow, down at Chris, then at each other. Brian looked down at his sister curled up in Maurice's arms then up at his best friend. Brian smiled.

"Take care of her for me, kay pal."

Before Maurice could argue or interject Brian disappeared in the shadow and the shadow boarded up. Maurice looked down at Chris and felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness and worry for her. But he would stand by her no matter what happened, he would be her shoulder to cry on and her best friend, but now she was staying and it filled every cell in his body with joy. Remembering that she was going to turn into a monster soon he ran her to his house. He kicked the door in quickly and ran into his bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and fluffed the pillows behind her head.

He kicked the door shut, ran to the bathroom ran back out and grabbed his head and screamed panicked. Then he heard Chris scream. He ran into the room and gently grabbed her hand.

"It's okay baby, I'm right here. It'll be over with soon I promise, just hold on babe."

Chris could barely acknowledge Maurice at all. The pain was unbearable! It felt like every cell in her body was on fire, twisting, turning, being stretched to the point of breaking, then being reformed. She wanted to scream her lungs out but she couldn't all she could get out were small whimpers and groans. She barely acknowledged when something cool pressed to her forehead because the minute it did her body broke out in chills. Maurice realized this and tucked the blankets over her snuggly up to her chin. Chris could barely stay awake but she couldn't even close her eyes it was too painful.

"I-it's okay babe, I'm right here. I'm right here."

Maurice hated being the bystander just watching this. He knew how painful this was and he wished he could do something. All he could do was to sit by her side and watch and it made him feel useless. He hated seeing her in pain more than anything else he just wished that it would be over soon. Chris couldn't hold on any longer and she passed out completely which scared the snot out of Maurice who thought that maybe her body couldn't take it and her heart stopped.

"Babe? Babe! Don't die on me now Chris, come on!"

He shook her shoulders a bit then put his ear to her chest. When he heard her heartbeat he sighed relieved and chuckled sheepishly at his mistake. He figured that she'd be hungry when she would be done changing so he figured he would go out and get some food. Maurice wetted a towel he had in his vest and laid it on her forehead then went out the door locking it before he left and ran down to the food room. He was back in less than ten minutes. He unlocked the door and walked in quietly; he set down the food and went into his bedroom relieved to see that she had changed while he was gone. He removed the cloth from her forehead and smiled at her as she slept peacefully.


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in any way, shape, or form. I only own Chris.**

Maurice looked over her curiously. Her long hair was incredibly wild, tangling and bunching up so it only came to her bare back now. He ran a hand through it experimentally and found that if he slid a hand through it went through sleek smooth hair; but, as soon as his hand left her hair it would bunch up into a tangled mess again. Her skin had turned a metallic white that glowed dimly and small black dots covered her cheeks. Her nails had grown at least an inch and were dangerously sharp but they actually glowed. Her nails shined green, red, and blue, on each nail changing in between all the time. She seemed to have gone through a major growth spurt too. She was just as tall as Maurice now but her figure hadn't changed at all it had just grown with her. Maurice grinned and played with two little green glowing horns that were sticking out from her tumble weed of thick hair.

He flicked and rubbed at the horns and Chris moved in her sleep. Maurice grinned as an idea flashed in his head. He grabbed a lock of hair and brushed her nose with it. She lifted a hand and swatted air as he moved his hand away from her sharp claws. He sighed at the close call and did it again, and again, and again.

Until, finally Chris pulled the blankets over her head and mumbled, "I'm up Brian! Just give me 5 more minutes the bus doesn't come till 6:37."

Maurice laughed and Chris sat up awake in bed and spun around to face him.

"About time you woke up."

Chris rubbed her eyes. She assumed that she was back at home and Brian had let her sleep through the day. That's what she thought until she scratched herself below the eye with her sharp claws.

"Ahh! What the-"

Maurice scurried over to her side and gently took her hands.

"Whoa there babe. You got to be careful, you've got some long claws," Maurice exclaimed as he pricked his finger on one, "yow! Sharp too."

Chris pulled her hands away and stared at her hands in alarm. She turned her hands around, felt her face, all of the things you would think a person that has just undergone a dramatic change would do then she ran into the bathroom and promptly screamed. Now it was Maurice's turn to be alarmed. He ran sporadically to the bathroom and grabbed Chris by the shoulders.

"Babe, look at me!"

Chris quieted down and stared into Maurice's eyes. Maurice stared back worriedly at Chris who looked like she was about to have a heart attack or a nervous breakdown.

"Chris-baby, I know that this might be a little bit of…um…a shock to you. But I want you to know that I still love you! And we can go see Brian every night! I promise I'll make this the best eternity that any girl could have I promise!"

Chris calmed down by Maurice's stuttering and rushed words threw her arms around him and started to cry.

"Oh, babes…please don't cry…please? I'm sorry we couldn't get you up in time and you were so sick…I'm sorry but please don't cry!"

Chris started to laugh and cry all at the same time. She was so happy that she was here with Maurice and that she could be with him always but the reality of eternity also came crashing down on her and she cried out of happiness and sadness. Maurice picked her up cradling her like a baby and walked into his, well, he figured their bedroom and sat down on the bed and let her cry her little heart out. He stroked her hair and whispered things here and there to see if it would calm her down but it was clear that she just needed to have a good long cry. After about 20 minutes of straight crying her sobs lessened to just sniffles and she wiped her face on her sleeve and took a deep breath.

Maurice patted her back, "You alright now?"

"Yeah…I'm fine. Everything just came down on me at once you know?"

"Yeah… Hey! You're all better now! No sickness or boniness," Maurice said trying to cheer her up with a little tickle and some good old fashion Maurice enthusiasm.

"Yeah. I'm not..._that_ ugly right?"

Maurice gasped in offense like she had said something inappropriate.

"You listen to me Chris, you are a beaut. Human or monster. Don't let anyone tell you any different. Besides you're my babe, Chrissi, and I love ya no matter what."

"Aw, you're so sweet. I love you Maurice."

Maurice grinned and kissed the tangle of soft hair and then her lips.

"I love you Chris-baby. Oh, I almost forgot! I brought you some junk from the 'cafeteria'. Thought you might be hungry after all the growing you did."

Chris laid a hand on her stomach. Come to think of it she was pretty hungry.

"Yeah, I could use a bite."

"Well come on then! It's getting cold!"

He pulled her into the living room and sat her down in front of the pile of food he had brought back.

"Go on then, dig in! It's all for you!"

Maurice grabbed a hotdog and took a massive bite out of it and Chris sifted through the food and grabbed a package of Hostess Snowballs and a slice of Hawaiian thick crust pizza.

"How did you know pineapple was my favorite?"

"You talk in your sleep," Maurice replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So…you watch me while I sleep?"

Maurice swallowed and held onto the table as the large chuck of food slid down his throat painfully. He gulped in air and Chris giggled at his entertaining reaction.

"Well, on some days you seemed tired…and, you know..."

Chris laughed and took a bite out of her pizza. Maurice sighed in relief that the conversation had ended there and continued to eat. Chris ate until her stomach was close to bursting then sat back into the couch. Maurice jumped onto the couch so hard that the whole couch groaned and Chris jumped a little in her seat. To top it off, Maurice let out a big burp.

"Whoop, pardon me."

Chris broke out laughing and Maurice grinned goofily.

"Oh, Maurice…"

"So babe, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know I'm pretty bushed."

"Of course you are you just went through a full body transformation! Of course you'd be tired! Well we can sleep in the bedroom or if you're uncomfortable we can sleep on the couch."

"Bed definitely! I don't think I can make it through a night camping on the couch."

"Let's go then."

Maurice hopped up and pushed Chris back onto the bed.

"Hey!"

Maurice just laughed and Chris chased after him. Maurice jumped into bed and Chris tackled him. They laughed for a few minutes wrestling and constantly flipping the other until they lay on their backs staring at the ceiling. Chris noticed the theme in this room was country and the sky was blue with moving clouds.

"Maurice, why the country theme?"

"I like the country and this is as close to a real sky as I, you now too babe, that we can ever get too. It's calming too, at least for me."

"Maurice, I'm glad I'm with you. I love you a lot, you know that right?"

"Yeah, and you know that I love you more than anything in the world too, right?"

"Yeah. You're the best Maurice.'

"Oh, you're just trying to butter me up."

Chris giggled again and fit her head comfortably into the pillow. Maurice wrapped an arm around her and sighed happily.

"Night babe, don't let the bed bugs bite ya."

Chris giggled softly and closed her eyes. Her fear of losing her brothers could wait, right now sleep was the most important thing. Besides that was years into the future, it would still hurt but right now there was no use in fretting over it.

"Maurice…I'm not afraid of losing Brian and Eric anymore."

"That's good baby, but go to sleep. We got a fun filled night ahead of us and I want you at your best."

"Mm Kay."

With that Chris slowly fell into a deep dark sleep with Maurice following right behind her.


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer- I don't own Little Monsters in anyway. I only own Chris.**

Chris woke up feeling brand new. She stretched in bed, waking her sleeping muscles and found that during the night she and Maurice had found their way into each other's arms. Maurice was fast asleep with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She leaned up and kissed him on the lips and he smiled. Chris smiled back but untangled herself from his grip and hopped out of bed. Maurice felt around the bed for her until he felt off the bed and hit the floor. He hopped up and saw Chris looking into the mirror with a look of unsure critique. Maurice crept up behind her in the mirror and laid a supportive hand on her shoulder.

"You look beautiful."

Chris smiled and looked up at Maurice with appreciation.

"You're a sweetheart. So, what do you have planned?"

Maurice stared thoughtfully then grinned as an inspired idea came to him.

"Come on, oh, you're gonna love this!"

Maurice dragged her out of the house and through the underworld. They climbed a staircase, walked a bridge, climbed down a ladder, and then finally slid down a slide. Chris stumbled on her feet but managed to stay standing, Maurice ate the floor. Chris couldn't cover the laugh but went over to his side and picked him up. Maurice smiled sheepishly and looked up at the huge archway they had come to with a dimly lit room inside.

"Maurice what's this?"

"I can't believe I didn't show this to you and Bri the first time I brought you down here. I usually don't need much in here, I'm an improve guy you know."

"Yeah, but what is in there?"

Maurice wrapped a hand around her and smiled almost manically.

"Alright, here's the deal. You know when you buy a ticket to a concert that you've been dreaming of watching; then, you lose your ticket."

Chris grimaced at the floor, "Yes."

Maurice chuckled, it sounded like something that Chris might do. He led her into the room and Chris looked up amazed at what lay inside.

"It shows up here."

Chris slipped out of Maurice's grasp and looked around the room. It was almost like Boy's room with the many shelves sitting in the room. The difference is that storage bins filled the shelves each with a label: single earrings, single socks, tickets, rotted food, girlie magazines, the list went on. Chris looked through the many bins Maurice following with a tolerable smile.

"Maurice is all this stuff stolen?"

Before Maurice could answer an orange bag landed in front of both of them. They gaze up at the face of a grizzly monster that peered down at the two with a lopsided grin, literally lopsided his mouth was stitched at an angle, from atop a huge unicycle.

"What, do you think were thieves? Pirates," the monster cackled maniacally, "It's all lost!"

The monster pedaled off father into the room leaving the other two alone in the room.

"What's up with him?"

"Hound? He's just a really old timer, doesn't get much company. Plus, I think he's been riding that unicycle in circles too long. He gets all this stuff packaged so the monsters can use it when they go out and wreak havoc."

Chris kneeled to the bag to get a closer look of what was inside of it. Upon closer inspection it wasn't orange at all. It was a clear bag and the orange color was from the dozens of goldfish all neatly packed into the bag in straight rows.

"What do you use these for?"

"Oh, we flush the live ones and replace 'em with these dead ones. The kids get a lecture on pet responsibility and they feel guilty on top of that, one of my favorites."

Chris stood up and looked around the room some more. She dug through various bins just looking at the various items that filled the bins.

"So this is like the worlds lost and found center?"

"Yep, everything that any irresponsible kid loses ends up here."

"That's kind of cool."

"Kind of cool," Maurice said offended.

"Really cool… Maurice could we go see Brian?"

Maurice's face softened and he nodded. He walked her to Brian's and she held his hand as she walked up the staircase. When his hand slipped out of hers she turned back to see Maurice at the bottom of the stairs.

"Go on, you got to go this alone."

Chris nodded and walked up into the shadow. It was her room, all neat and cleans just how she had left it. She walked out into the hall that was completely dark and looked around. All the lights had been turned out except for a few candles. Chris walked up the attic stairs to Brian's room and she saw the dim glow of a candle beneath the door and the scratching of a pencil on paper was the only sound. A fearful sigh escaped her lips and she gently pushed the door open and walked into the room.

Brian looked up from his newest blueprints up at the monster that stood in his room. The two stared at each other silently clueless of what to think of the person who stood across from them. Brian stood and faced the monster that stood in his room. He looked her over and he felt he somehow knew this monster. The monster looked away from him almost ashamed and he knew who it was.

"Chris?"

Tears gathered in Chris's eyes and she tackled her brother in a tight hug. Brian hugged his sister close to him and let her cry into his shoulder. He pulled back after a few minutes and brushed away the hair from her face.

"You look pretty good, for a monster."

Chris laughed and gently shoved Brian.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. Cause now I'll live forever, I'll never do all the things I wanted to, and I'll live forever…"

"Chris come on, you know me better than that! I love you no matter what and so does Eric. He called me worried sick about you and wanted me to call him as soon as I got any word about you."

Chris smiled and got comfortable on Brian's bed. She knew that this was going to be a long reunion.


	32. Chapter 32

**Disclaimer-I don't own Little Monsters. I only Own Chris.**

**A/N- This is it people the ending chapter! I would have continued it but I feel that this would be a safe and good place to stop. I hope you enjoyed the story, I had fun writing it. I will probably have another story coming out and it will be better than this one… hopefully.**

Brian eyed his sister in amazement at the absolute change she had gone through.

"Wow, Chris you really changed."

Chris suddenly looked down hearted despite what he had said a second ago and Brian noticed.

"Hey, I didn't mean that in a bad way! You look pretty good considering what your boyfriend looks like."

Chris's face went red in embarrassment and she glared at the offensive words. Brian laughed hysterically and Chris joined in the laughter unable to contain it. It was like nothing had changed; nothing at all. Brian was still Brian and she was still his sister, which he liked to terrorize. But everything had changed. How could he be so calm about it, so calm about the fact that one day he would become elderly and die? Chris stopped laughing and hung her head.

"How can you be so okay with it?"

"What," Brian asked with confusion written all over his face.

"How can you be okay with the fact that one day I'll die and we'll never see each other again ever!"

Brian looked softly at his older sister, her fist clenched and her eyes on the verge of leaking.

"Because when I have kids they'll remind you of me and they'll take care of you for me same with Eric's kids, so in a way Eric and I will never really leave you."

The words were meant to be comforting and they were but left her feeling bittersweet.

"I guess."

Brian stared at her with a feeling Chris couldn't make out until he asked, "When's the last time you talked with mom and dad?"

"Huh?"

"Mom and dad, when's the last time you talked to them?"

"I-I don't know."

Brian looked down thoughtfully then looked deeply into his sisters eyes. What he saw weighed on his heart. She didn't know and she really didn't care. It made him sad that her sister could care and love her brothers as much as she did but ignore and show so much bitterness and resentment for her parents. It wasn't as if he was any better, he hadn't talked to his parents in over a year but he still wished that sometimes he had the Chris from when Maurice first visited them. The Chris that never lost hope in her parent's relationship, well, the situation made it so that she had no other choice but to believe and hope that her parents would get over it. Thinking about it Brian could relate in why she was so bitter towards their parents. He was too, but, sometimes when he was talking to Eric over their telephone calls they would start to reminisce about a time where everything was simple. Where they were all together and it seemed like nothing in the world could tear them apart.

Brian sometimes held a glimmer of hope that Chris would forgive them and they would sweep up and mend the pieces of what little bond they still had together. Now, it was impossible. Her eyes held no sorrow or remorse for the fact that the same thing she dreaded for her brothers would happen to their parents. Brian always respected and loved his sister but he felt that glimmer of hope for a family that loved each other no matter what flee his chest. He knew it wasn't coming back. Especially with the next words she said.

"Brian what's the point. Bedside's I doubt they'll want to see me like this. Or find out the fact that I'm dating a monster. I love you and Eric but our parents wouldn't want to see me."

Brian knew with a clench of his heart she was right. They would never be able to accept this, the fact that their oldest child was a monster. He looked up at Chris suddenly sober to see a look of extreme thought clouding over her face.

"Is Eric at home right now?"

"Yeah…he should be. Why?"

Chris grabbed his hand being extremely cautious with her long talon like claws and pulled him to her room and towards her bed. She lifted it up and smiled at Brian her blindingly white teeth glowing in the dim light.

"Let's go see him."

Brian grinned and kneeled at her bedside.

"You ready Bri?"

"Did you even have to ask?"

"No I guess not. Look out below!"

The two of them fell into the underworld, well, more like Brian fell. Chris hadn't caught him fast enough and he fell onto the ground. Maurice pulled him onto his feet and Brian grinned and greeted his old friend.

"Babe, why'd you bring the knucklehead down here? I thought that you wanted to have a little chat?"

"I did, I do, but I want to go see Eric now."

"Man, babe, you're dragging me around like we're on a mall shopping spree."

Chris slightly scowled at the shopping spree part, having experienced plenty of summer clothing shopping trips with her mother all of them had lasted at least four hours; and, each had consisted of nothing but trying on clothes. Maurice led the two of them to Eric's and went up the stairs. When Chris noticed Maurice at the bottom she grabbed his arm.

"Uh-uh you're coming with us this time."

"Babe, Chrissi! This is a personal thing, a family thing it's private!"

"And you're family, so get off you lazy blue butt and come on."

Maurice continued to struggle and whine but Chris had also gotten stronger from her transformation plus Maurice wasn't really trying his hardest anyway so in the end Chris dragged him through the shadow and into Eric's room where he proceeded to hide in the corner and pout. Eric was sleeping in bed, his covers on the floor near his bed, lying on his stomach. Chris kneeled next to the bed and smiled at her youngest brother.

"I remember when you two were younger. You used to sleep like this too, you out grew it though. I wish things had gone better with mom and dad; but, I guess that everything worked out for the better, huh?"

Brian smiled with a sentimental smile. Chris gently began to smooth Eric's hair with her hand in long strokes.

"I remember when you two were really small and you wanted me to do everything with you. No matter what it was and I'd always be there. I'm sorry I'm not like that now."

"What do you mean? When mom and dad were splitting up you were always there when I needed a friend or when I needed comfort. You've always been there… I mean that, honestly I do."

"I'm glad you think that. But, I don't know if I can be there for you when you need me the most now. I can only come out at night now."

"Yeah but I'll just get you a cell phone for your birthday and we'll be good to go."

Maurice watched the scene with a tolerant and soft smile. He tried to remember if his sister and he had been this close but he kept drawing blanks. Eric seemed to hear the laugh that Chris had let out and stretched in his bed.

"Dad? Is that you?"

"No Eric It's me."

"Chris…Chris?"

Eris stared wide eyed at his sister who was grinning reassuringly.

"It's me."

"So…you chose to stay a monster?"

"I sort of had to. We ran out of time. But I'm still me."

Eric rushed to his sister and gave her a hug.

"I'm just glad you're okay. I love you."

"I love you to squirt. I'm sorry I haven't kept up the calls."

"That's alright. Brian's been keeping me caught up with everything. So, how'd your boyfriend react to the whole…change?"

"Boyfriend?"

Chris looked over at Brian who had his hands behind his back and was staring clueless back at Chris.

"You didn't tell him did you?"

"It slipped my mind."

Chris mumbled sort of ticked off under her breath and sighed.

"You still remember Maurice right?"

"Sure, he's your and Brian's monster buddy right?"

"About that he's not really my buddy anymore."

"No they've gone far above that level."

Chris growled at Brian to keep Brian quiet and Eric's eyes widened.

"You can't mean…"

Chris winced and stared as Eric's face going from: weirded out, disgusted, confused, and then understanding in less than five seconds. Meanwhile, Brian was over on the sidelines laughing his head off. Maurice took this time to walk out of the shadows and over to Chris. Eric watched open mouthed as Maurice walked next to Chris and Brian wiped tears from his eyes.

"Hey, you're sis has good taste."

Eric just shook his head but a small grin of disbelief flashed across his face but it was all the others needed to laugh.

"Eric! Is there someone in your room? …I'm coming in there."

The other three quickly waved goodbye as Eric shooed them from the bedroom before Glen came in. The three made it under in time and walked Brian back home…after a quick game of monster ball of course. Brian and Maurice said goodbye and Chris walked with Brian up to the shadow.

"So, I guess that this is goodbye Bri."

"Nah, it's not like you're not going to see me again. Where there's a bed there's a way, remember?"

Chris giggled at the memory of when Maurice first said that to him and Brian smiled. Brian pulled Chris against his chest and gave her a tight hug.

He leaned down to her ear and whispered, "Eric took it better than I thought. I wonder how Todd and Kirsten will take it."

"Don't. You. Dare."

Brian just laughed and shook his head. He turned towards Maurice who was watching the two from the bottom of the staircase.

"You take good care of Chris okay! Or…I'll rip of your horns and put them on my mantle!"

Maurice looked taken aback but scrambled to a salute and shouted back, "You got it Bri! I wouldn't dream of hurting her! Would I Chris?"

Chris who was laughing up until Maurice yelled for her nodded.

"Okay. Take care kay, and have fun."

"You know I will."

The siblings hug one more time and Brian crawls through the shadow right before the sun comes up. Chris sighs and looks to where her brother disappeared to. She smiled and felt a warm feeling of happiness and relief fill her chest. She looked down at Maurice and laughed and rushed down the stairs into his arms. She kissed him happily and smiled at him.

"So what do we do know Maurice?"

"I don't know babe. But we got all eternity."

"Sounds good to me."

**A/N- The end! Wow 32 chapters! This was a long story! To tell the truth I don't think I'll make a sequel for this story. It's one of those stories where I want the reader to make up their own conclusions of what happened after that. I hoped you guys liked this story; I thought it was a little bumpy here and there. But, at least I'm getting practice. There may or may not be another story with Little Monsters that I write depends if I can get my ideas straight. Happy New Years everybody!**


End file.
